Year: 1871




fers from each other as much as they do
from facts; but the following version was
given by an eye witness, and may be re-
lied upon as correct:


The concurrence of circumstances re-
sulting in the accident is remarkable. At
10 o'clock, freight train, laden with pa
troleum oil, was going down on the out
side track from Hamburg, and when just
entering on the bridge the axle on one of
the cars broke, but the car somehow held
on until dashing along the beam and tres
sells of the draw-bridge, and there it got
overturned on the left hand track. up
which the Pacific train from New York
was then rushing at express speed. There
was no time to signal, and the locomotive
of the passenger express ran into the
overturned freight car, which it smashed
to pieces.


Instantly the oil blazed up, enveloping
the locomotive and tender in fire and
smoke. In few moments another oil-car
got on fire, and the flames spread with
lightning rspidity until the beams and
pillars of the bridge and all the freight
cars, except the three last, which were
uncoupled and got out Of reach of the fire.
were saturated with the blazing oil. A
vast column of fire, surmounted by dense
cloud of smoke, shot up from the tangled
mass of cars and the burning bridge lit up
the frozen river and the snow covered hills
for miles The agonized cries of distress
and wild alarm, and the shrieks of the
dying arose upon the night air and smote
upon the hearts of the few spectators who
were compelled to witness without being
able to render the slightest assistance.


The inhammable liquid was rolling in
every direction, and the cars of the ex-
press train were soon on fire but, fortu-
nately, the inmates of the two last passen-
ger cars had time to get out and escape, as
did also the fireman, who jumped off over
the cmbankment and got away, though
seriously bruised.


In less time than it takes to describ be the
awful situation of affairs, the draw-bridge,
weakened by the intense heat and the great
weight, suddenly gave way and the loco
motive and express car and Pullman S
sleeping car were precipitated into the
deep channel, leaving two burning but
empty passenger cars standing on the New
York side of the stream.


The petroleum spread out on the ice, a
sea of fire enveloping the bridge and piers
and surrounding two icc-bouud schooners
at the north side, and these crafts were
only saved by the powerful play of water
kept up by steam fre-eugine from the
adjacent village of Wappinger's Falls.
Nothing could be done to rescue those who
had gone down into the dark current, and
when morning dawned those unfortunates
were entombed beneath a solid mass of
ice.


At an early hour yesterday morning,
hundreds of men set to work recovering
the bodies. 1t was painfully slow work,
covered as the engulphed carriages were
by the ice and debris of the bridge, and
immense beams of timber still on fire.


Up to $50 o'clock, only twenty-five
bodies had been recovered--most of them
charred and disfigured so as to defy ident-
fication. They were of all ages and sexes,
but the greater portion were men from the
sleeping car, containing passengers bound
for st. Louis aud Buffalo. 1t is supposed
that something near siXty-seven will be
found to be the exact number of Deaths
Upto night-fall yesterday, crowds thronged
round the scene of disaster, watching the
men groping for bodies, and gazing down
into the rushing tide, where bits of feminine
attire might be seen clinging to the timbers
or irons of the cars.


On the ice near the holes through which
search was made lay wheels and axles and
iron curiously bent and twisted from the
heat and miscellaneous pile of fragments
of the two trains.


The ice was of brownish hue for seve-
raj hundred yards, at each side, stained
from the burning petroleum.


The beams and uprghts of the bridge
which yet remained were burning and
smoking and the terrible combustible oil
still sent up fire and smoke from crevices
in the piers.


The Hudson was covered with parties
going to or returning from the scene of
disaster, skating or sleighing.


1t is the belief in Fishkll and New
Hamburg that the passenger train was IL
minutes overdue, and that the accident
would never have occurred but for this
circumstance, as the express would have
arrived at New Hamburg before the freight
train left, if up to time. However, this,
if true, will no doubt be brought out in
evidence at the inquest. 1t is said, by
way of accounting for the deplorable oc-
currence, that the company keeps no sig
nal man on the bridge, and that if they
had kept watchman at so important a
post hecatomb of human lives would not
have been sacrificed


All this will be cleared up at the Coro~
ner's investigation.


INCIDENTS.


When, among the rest, the body of a
woman, with child grasped closely in
each arm, was drawn out, gentleman
who had been walking frantically to and
fro since the disaster, at once recognized
them as bis wife and children. He said
that just before the collision he left his FAM
lily to go to the smoking-car, and had
hardly stepped into the adjoining car when
the shock came, and separated them from
him forever One of the ch' ldren was
wrapped closely in shawl and was not
burned at all, though it had been drowned.
The other, as well as the mother, was very
badly burned about the face and breast.


Many and sad were the stories related by
those who had escaped, One gentleman
said that he had started for the West with
| | il wife and all of his nropertV consisting