A DIRE CATASTROPHE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8910, 2 September 1907, Page 2

A DIRE CATASTROPHE.

Heavy Death Roil, Press Association —Copyright. Ottawa, August 30. S? [A cantilever bridge is one which is unsupported at the outer end. It is usually a trussed bridge, composed of two portions reaching out from opposite banks, and supported near, the middle of their own length on piers which they overhang, thus forming cantilevers, which ipeet over the space to be spanned or sustain a third portion, to complete tiio connection. Below Quebec tho St. Lawrgnce forms a broad estuary, and it enters the Gulf of St. Lawrence by a mouth twenty-sis miles wide.]

Harrowing Details

Press Association, New Yokk, August 31,

Details of tho St. Lawrence bridge disaster are out. Some 92 workmen wore about to leave the bridge in the evening. ,0£ these Cl perished. Appparently the cause of tho disaster was the overloading of the construction train. Tho driver felt d jerk, and shut off the steam, but tho engine continued its journey. <■” The structure dipped at the end and then collapsed. 7 i . • The awful'ciompleteness of tho catastrophe paralysed ’ everybody in tho vipinity. Anxious proiyds heard groans and shrieks.

A number of tho victims wero piunep under the wreckage near the shore throughout the night, but no one was able to make any efforts at rescue or -to relieve the awful sufferings of tho victims until daylight, Meanwhile tho rising tide drowned many.

The collapse .of the bridge means a financial loss.of £400,000, and two years’ work has been undone.