Ashtabula Bridge Accident

be sure and join us in the history guy guild at the historyguyguild.locals.com [Music] in the 19th century travel by rail had its share of dangers the united states added some 170 000 miles of train track between 1871 and 1900 and that dramatically increased the chance of death by train one town ashtabula ohio was becoming a bustling railway stop between new york and the west when disaster struck the assabula bridge disaster of december 1876 would spark change not just in the town but also in the railroad industry and with government regulation the worst rail disaster in the united states in the 19th century deserves to be remembered ashtabula ohio has a population today of about eighteen thousand situated on the northernmost border of ohio on the lake erie shoreline the city has a harbor and a significant maritime heritage in the 19th century the train station in astabula was a stopping point between new york and chicago with convenient access to the great lakes industrialization caused growth in the community the population more than doubled between 1870 and 1880 in the late 19th century thousands of miles of railroad tracks were laid in ohio many of them thanks to industrialists emesis stone stone was born in 1818 the ninth child of a farmer in massachusetts he became a successful carpenter by the age of 21 when he began working for his brother-in-law william howe construction contractor howe invented a design for a truss an engineering structure used to support weight that could be used for railroad bridges stone and an investor purchased the rights to use house trusts for a sum of forty thousand dollars the equivalent of over a million dollars today described as stern proud and stubborn stone became a hugely successful businessman the most prominent bridge builder of the east coast and built what many called a railway empire in ohio and beyond as the president of the cleveland paynesville and ashtabula railroad cp and a for short stone decided to replace a 300 foot wooden bridge over the astrabula river with a new all-iron how truss design the basics of the how truss include upper and lower parallel beams that are called cords connecting the two cords are a vertical post and diagonally between them are the braces and counter braces which rest on and are bolted to angled blocks this simple design allowed panels of the bridge to be completed offside and transported to the bridge location or to be completed with minimal tooling on-site according to the us army corps of engineers a howe truss bridge should span no more than about 150 feet because of the stress that it places on the panels however stone's new bridge was to be 154 feet stone also wanted to be entirely made of iron whereas up to this point how truss bridges were typically constructed of partially wood and partially iron the designer he chose to flush out his plans joseph tomlinson disagreed with many of stone's bridge elements and all iron bridge would be heavier lowering the payload at kakari and the beams were undersized for the load so the men parted ways and stone made the changes himself he also edited the end panels to have fewer posts and braces keeping the manufacturing in the family stone contracted with the mill that his brother managed for the i-beams and raw iron the cast iron and wrought iron were then fabricated by cp a when building began the construction supervisor planned for a 5.7 inch camber that's the upward curvature which straightens under a load but stone had this reduced to 3.5 inches meaning the upper cords were now too long workers compensated by shaving them down as the temporary support work was being removed the bridge began to sag two and a half inches below horizontal so the false work was replaced and the camber adjusted to the original plans not by replacing the i-beams but by shimming them as the building supports were removed for the second time the bridge buckled in several places stone reached out to the chief engineer in charge of the railroad charles collins collins had originally been told that he should concentrate on other bridges being built to perceive snub by stone so knowing little of the construction he begrudgingly came to see if he could help and determined that the i-beams had been installed on their sides the workers had to remove them and turn them 90 degrees additional supports were added and on the third try with the help of shims the bridge withheld the tests of three or four locomotives crossing at speed and also stationary locomotives in july of 1865 three years after its initial planning began the bridge was completed railroads were no stranger to accidents in this period as rail traffic increased the local and federal governments didn't have regulations in effect railroad companies didn't have to report to anyone and inspections weren't mandated according to the ohio history webpage ohio history central railway companies were more concerned about profit than safety and in 1873 210 people died in rail accidents in ohio with another 398 injured in 1900 over 500 people were killed and another 7 000 injured on december 29th 1876 conditions were extreme in the northeast temperatures were well below freezing and over 20 inches of snow had fallen throughout the day with gusty winds causing what the web page weather and radar describes as a blinding blizzard the lakeshore michigan southern railroad train number five known as the pacific express an elegantly appointed train consisting of two engines two each of baggage and express cars three coaches a smoking car and three sleepers was over two hours late as approached the astabula station at 7 30 pm because the bridge was only about a thousand feet before the station engineers would cut off steam a bit before the bridge and coast across into the station as the first engine was clearing the bridge the driver heard a crack and felt the train slipping backwards he threw open the throttle as the bridge collapsed the coupling snapped between the two engines allowing the first engine to remain on solid ground but the second engine in the express car is behind fell with the bridge to the icy cold snow-covered river 75 feet below the rest of the cars were then pulled into the chasm one after another crashing into or on top of each other below accounts vary as to how many people were bored the chicago tribune noted that survivors suggested far more were aboard than railway officials acknowledged most agree it was in the range of about 160 to 170 total with trained personnel and passengers one survivor j.e burchell described the event the first thing i heard was a cracking in the front part of the car and then the same cracking in the rear then came another cracking in the front louder than the first and then it came a sickening oscillation and a sudden sinking and i was thrown stunned from my seat i heard the cracking and spluttering smashing around me the ironwork bent and twisted like snakes and everything took horde shapes i heard a lady scream in anguish oh help me then i heard the cry of fire someone broke a window and i pushed out the lady who had screamed another survivor marion shepard told the winfield telegram of winfield kansas i can't describe the noise there were all sorts of sounds i could hear above a sharp ringing sound as if all the glass on the train were being shattered to pieces someone cried out we are going down at that moment all the lights in the car went out i felt the car floor sinking under my feet the sensation of falling was very apparent i thought of a great many things and i made up my mind that i was going to be killed she escaped having to climb over the roof with another car the car was dark inside she said and oh what heart rendering groans issued from it the scene was horrible virtual continued the train lay in the valley in the water our car a little on its side both ends broken in the rest of the train land every direction someone in some on the side crushed and broken a terrible but picturesque sight below where the water and broken ice seventy feet above was the broken bridge the victims not only had to deal with the crash but now the freezing weather and even more frightening fire in the wreckage as the cars collapse the lamps and heating stoves within quickly ignited fires virtual said the snow in the valley was nearly to my waist it could only move with difficulty the wreck was then on fire the wind was blowing from the east and whirling blinding masses of snow over the terrible ruin crackling of the flames the whistling wind the screaming of the hurt made a pandemonium of the little valley and the water the freezing creek was red with blood or black with flying centers those who could escape the wreckage in the first precious minutes the stark county democrat of canton ohio wrote it seems the falling train and bridge mashed the ice in the creek and those not killed in the fall or burned up by the burning cars were held down by the wreck and drowned before they could be extricated many too will be or have been frozen with the surviving engineer ringing his bell and blowing the whistle repeatedly a handful of rescuers showed up quickly citizens of the city heard the crash and came to help carrying the injured the quarter mile to the nearest hotel the stark county democrat continues all the large-hearted citizens of ashtabula are at the wreck and miss minis kan are working to rescue those not already claimed by death a true horror of the night was the thieves that took advantage of the mayhem stealing from the injured the chicago tribune gave the example of mr j.w smith of toronto canada who was known to have received the evening before a registered letter and seven thousand dollars in money this pocket was found with the telegram and registered letter but the money was gone this was the paper surmised indication of the presence upon the scene of the disaster of experienced robbers help from the fire department took longer because of the blizzard conditions the fire chief allegedly showed up drunk and refused to fight the fire on the grounds that it was futile and so a bucket brigade was formed by those that disagreed while the fire engine with a hand pump and steam pump went unused but their efforts could not save those pinned by the wreckage and onlookers watched in horror as the fire consumed the entire train from one end to the other the official record list 92 people killed 64 entered someone survived from each car except the second accounts from passengers suggest that the train was quite full with a sitting capacity of over 200 and that seats were hard to find but as the intensity of the fire burned the bodies to the point that for some all that remained were bones or indistinguishable burnt lumps the exact number will never be known the stark county democrat said of some of the mangled and burned bodies no one could suspect that they had ever been human beings reverend stephen pete a resident of ashtabula who had come to help rescue that night and search for personal items later wrote an account of the passengers on the train from front to back and was able to give names to many of those who had died the weather sold the news of the accident the stark county democrat noted that snow has been falling almost constantly for 48 hours making it very difficult to get news from the wrecked and burning train when word reached cleveland by telegraph a relief train was loaded with railroad officials surgeons and medical supplies and worried friends and family of passengers known to be on the train among them was charles collins the chief engineer who had not been involved with construction but yet was responsible for safety and inspections for the railroad for several days afterwards workers and townspeople dug through the debris and snow first for the dead and then to search for personal items that might identify any of those deceased the quad city times of davenport iowa noted the funeral of one of the dead davenport businessman j.a aldrich the sermon was preached without corpse or coffin no vestige of the missing man's body having been found save a small pin cushion which he had carried for several years a sad funeral truly when loved friends are not permitted to look on the face of the dead whom they had searched for faithfully among the mangled passengers of the ill-fated train the paper mentioned another victim of the accident from the quad cities dr hubbard who was identified only by his watch chain which remained upon his otherwise unrecognizable body on december 31st because there was no coroner in ashtabula a coroner's jury was appointed consisting of six men who took testimony from 53 people including both locomotive engineers and the rear brakeman members of the astra villa fire department passengers civil engineers and builders over two months the report was submitted at the beginning of march 1877 and concluded that the disaster and deaths were caused by the poorly designed and constructed bridge that was not properly inspected the failure of the train to have self-extinguishing stoves is mandated by state law eight years prior and the failure of the fire department to even attempt to fight the fire amethyst stone who was in europe at the time of the disaster was held responsible for the bridge the railroad for the inspections and stoves and fire chief knapp was charged with responsibility for the fire on january 1st the ohio state legislature appointed a committee of senators and representatives to investigate the disaster they amassed reports from civil engineers testimony from railroad officials including emesis stone and charles collins and were granted full access to the corner jury's information their findings were shared on january 30th and put the blame on the design and construction of the bridge the failure of the inspectors to properly inspect it and allegedly the materials were faulty this committee drafted a bill that would have regulated design code and required inspections by civil engineers but the ohio legislature didn't rule on the bill a third independent investigation possibly commissioned by the american society of civil engineers reported that a poorly cast lug had failed causing the collapse this investigation also blamed a general lack of knowledge regarding the strength of iron and the infrequent inspections by men not qualified for the job charles collins after testifying before the legislative committee was found dead in his home with a gunshot to the head popular belief at the time was that he was so grief-stricken that he committed suicide it was a year and a half later in november of 1878 that the new york times reported that the death was being investigated as a murder nothing seems to have come to the investigation however as due to his connection with the bridge disaster the website northwest pennsylvania stories notes public sentiment surrounding his death was not much aggrieved amethyst stone did commit suicide several years later in may of 1883 he was said to be both in failing health and failing businesses but many contended that it was guilt over the bridge disaster that eventually drove him to shoot himself through the heart modern analysis suggests that inspection might not have prevented the disaster metal fatigue the frigid temperatures the poor construction of the cords and poor design for the iron angle blocks all contributed to the bridge's collapse at the time americans were horrified to hear that the incompetence of the railroad company to build a safe bridge directly caused the unnecessary loss so many lives in 1887 a decade after the disaster congress passed the interstate commerce act which regulated the railroad industry and established a commission to investigate fatal accidents civil engineers stopped using cast iron for load-bearing structures railroads started using steam pipes rather than coal stoves to heat cars and the people of astabila built an emergency care clinic realizing that they didn't have medical facilities in the case of a large accident they opened a general hospital in 1904 and on january 19 1877 145 years ago today the people of astabula buried the still unidentified remains the unknown victims of what papers at the time called the astabula horror i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide short snippets of forgotten history and if you did enjoy feed the algorithm by making a comment or clicking that like button if you have suggestions for future episodes please send those to our suggestions email box check out our webpage at thehistoryguy.net and of course we're on facebook instagram and twitter you can book a special message from the history guy on cameo and check out our merchandise at teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes of forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 156,883

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, Train accident, ohio

Id: NfhYPUU2wNw

Length: 15min 53sec (953 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 19 2022