COLLAPSE OF A BRIDGE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3770, 3 September 1907, Page 3

COLLAPSE OF A BRIDGE.

Sixty-One Workmen Killed. Catastrophe at Quebec. Ottawa, August 3r. Owing to the collapse of a section, 800 feet long, of the new cantilever bridge that has been constructed across the St. Lawrence River at Quebec, nearly too persons, chiefly American workmen, were killed. Crowds Watching, but Unable to Help. New York, August 31. Details of the disaster show that out of 92 workmen who were about to leave the bridge in the evening, 61 perished. Apparently the cause of the disaster was the overloading of a construction train with iron building material. The driver of the engine felt a jerk, and shut off steam ; _ but the locomotive continued on its journey. On the weighted train getting further out from the central part of the cantilever, the structure dipped at the end and then collapsed. The suddenness and awful completeness of the catastrophe paralysed everybody in the vicinity. Anxious crowds gathered quickly, and groans and shrieks could be heard arising from a number of victims who w r ere pinned under the wreckage near the shore throughout the night; but nothing could be done to effect their rescue or relieve their sufferings until daylight. Meanwhile many were drowned by the risinng tide. The collapse means a financial loss of ,£400,000, and the undoing of two years’ work. ’ [This great bridge is being built across the St. Lawrence River from a point just South of the Chaudiere, a tributary flowing into the St. Lawrence on the south side, and nearly opposite Quebec, to Cape Rouge, and will be 3600 ft long from abutment to abutment, or 400 ft in all. There are two anchor piers, and two great river piers, the latter supporting a span of 1800 ft, said to be the longest ever designed. The structure has a width of Soft, with provision for two railway tracks, two roadways, and two side-walks. There is a clear space of 150 ft above water level under the main span. Work was begun on the bridge in the summer of 1900. Four railways are stated to be interested in the structure, aid for which, to the extent of 1.000,000 dollars, was voted by the Dominion Parliament, ,£250,000 by the Quebec Legislature, and 300,000 dollars bv the city of Quebec. The estimated total cost of the bridge is 4,000,000 dollars. The erection of the main span was begun last summer.]