CANADIAN CATASTROPHE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 2 September 1907, Page 3

CANADIAN CATASTROPHE.

A BRIDGE COLLAPSES. NEARLY 100 WORKMEN KILLED.

Ottawa, August 8. The largest cantilever bridge ia ' li« world, in the course of building at St. Ixxwrence, Quebec, collapsed. Nearlv 100 were killed, cliietty American workmen. The bridge was a mile and a-lialf long, and a set-lion of 800 feel collapsed when being traversed by i tram laden' with iron material. I

AN AWFUL DISASIKh. SIXTY-OX E WORKMEN PERISH. TWO YEARS' WORK AND £400,000 GONE.

Received Ist, 4,20 p.m. New York, August 31. Details of the St. Lawrenve bridge disaster show that out of ninety-two workmen who wore about to leave the bridge in the evening, sixty-one perished.

Apparently, the cause of the disaster was the overloading of the construction train, the driver of which felt a jerk And shut o:T steam, but the engine continued its journey. The structure dipped at the end and then collapsed. The awful completeness of the catastrophe paralysed everybody in the vicinity.

Anxious- crowds heard the groans and shrieks of a number of victims who were pinned in the wreckage near the shore throughout the night, but were Unable to rescue or relieve their sufferings until daylight Heanwhile, the rising tide drowned many.

The collapse means a financial loss of '£4oo/100, and two years' work has been aodone.

Work on the great St. Lawrence bridge was commenced in the autumn Of 1905. Besides being of great length, H was to be 80< - wide, providing ocOmunodation for two railway tracks, two roadways, and two sidewalks. The central span, 1800 ft in length, was to be the greatest ever built. Besides the central span, which was under construction, two approach spans of 210 ft each tad two shore arms of 500 ft each hare been completed.