Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1880 — FRIGHTFUL DISASTER. [ARTICLE]

FRIGHTFUL DISASTER.

Harrowing Particulars of the Scottish Railway Accident- Not a Single Survivor Rest to Tell the Awinl Tale. The recent bridge disaster at Dundee, Scotland, was one of the most appalling in the long list of railroad accidents. That a train of five coaches, carrying ninety passengers, should plunge from a bridge into a river, and not a living soul escape to tell the story of tho accident seems almost incredible. Cable dispatches give the following account of tho affair: During a terrific gale several spans of the bridge crossing tho Firth of Tay were blown down. This happened at 7:14 o’clock in the evening, while tho express train from Edinburgh to Dundee was crossing. At the time the train roached the south end of the bridge the signals indicated that everything was in safe condition. It was seen to pass upon the bridge, and soon after the gloom was illuminated by a flash of fire; then communication by wire was broken. This interruption alarmed the railway officials, who ventured out upon the structure, notwithstanding the storey only to find a hugo gap, through which tho tram had plunged into the water. Tho loss was made certain, at the same time, by ilie drifting ashoro of mail-bags, baggage, clothing, fragments of the coaches and portions of the bridge-work. The whole country was aroused by this catastrophe, and thousands of people came in from the surrounding districts to obtain news of the accident. Steamers and small boats wont to tho scene of ihe accident for the purpose of rescuing bodies. Tho bridge at which this frightful calamity took plvce was, until the erection of that over the Firth of Forth, the largest in tho world. The Firth of Tay, across which tho bridge is built, is simply an arm of the sea, and vessels of 500 tons burden run under tho structure. The Tay- is a principal river and estuary of Scotland, running from 120 to 160 miles. The cities of Dundee and Karl are on the north side of t':c estuary, and Newburg on its south side. The bridge was commenced in 1874, and has only been completed withiu a few years. It forms a connection between the town of Dundee and the North British railway system in Fife, and crosses the Firth of Tay about a mile and a half to the west of Dundee. The length of the bridge exceeds two miles. For the first five spans the bridge is on a curve of a quarter of a mile radiui; it is then straight for a distance of a mile and a half. At the south end of the bridge the rails aro seventyeight feet above high water. Over tho navigable part of the river the rails are 92 feet above high water. There are three spans of 60, two of 80, ten of 120, twelve of 136, thirteen of 230, one of 150, eleven of 120, twen-ty-five of 60, one of 155, and six of 27 feet; total number of spans, B’4. The piers are founded on rock, and are double cylinders of brick work. Tno superstructure consists wholly cf wrought-iron girders; the bracing is of double lattice form. The girders for tho 230 feet spans and tho bow-string girders have wrought-iron cross-girders resting on and riveted to the lower timber on which tho roadway is placed. It was supposed that the bridge was as strong as iron, wood and brick could make it, and was looked upon in the United Kingdom as ono of the finest specimens of engineer art that had ever been produced. The gap created in the bridge through which the train was precipitated is not less than half a mile in length. It includes eleven spans of 245 feet each, and one of 145 feot. The great height from which the cars fell, together with the fact that the passengers were all looked up, according to practice on British railways, rendered the destruction of all on board possible.