Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 June 1890 — THROUGH THE BRIDGE. [ARTICLE]

THROUGH THE BRIDGE.

TERRIBLE RAILROAD > ACCIDENT AT SAN FRANCISCO. Twenty-nine People Lose Their Lives Through an Engineer's Careles-ness— An Open Drawbridge. San Francisco (Cal.) dispatch: In a frightful railroad accident twonty-nlne people have lost their lives. The local train connecting at Oakland with tbe ferryboats from San Francisco ran through an open drawbridge over San Antonio Creek at Webster street, Oakland. The yacht Juanita had just passed through the draw when the train appeared, going in the direction of Alameda. The drawbridge keeper endeavored at once to dose the bridge, but it was too late, and the engine with the tender and the first car. which was filled witli passengers, plunged into the creek, which was here quite deep. Engineer Sam Dunn, when he saw that the bridge did not close, reversed the lever, but the momentum of the engine was too great to allow him to stop the train In time. The weight of the engine and the first car broke the couplings and left the other two cars of the train standing on the truck. The second car ran about a third of the way across the bridge and stopped, but the jar was sufficient to break open the front of the car, and many of the passengers were thrown Into the water. The first car, which had followed the engine to the bottom of the muddy estuary, soon rose, and such of the passengers as had escaped were picked up by the yachts and small boats which gathered at the scene. The trainmen and the rest of the passengers sot to work to help the rescuers, and when the wrecking train arrived from Oakland the car was drawn into shallow water and small boats began dragging the creek for the bodies of the victims. The top of tne passenger coach was cut open as soon as It was raised above the water and the work of removing the bodies commenced, ten being taken out In quick tsuccosslon. Three women and three girls wore taken from the water alive nnd removed to the receiving hospital. Another young lady died soon after being taken from the water. The nows of the accident created Intense excitement In Oakland and thousands of people flocked to the morguo and to the scene of the wreck. At the morgue bodies were laid out as soon as received to await identification. The body of E. P. Robinson, which was among those taken from the hole ent In the roof of the car, was among the first removed, and was taken charge of by Coroner Evers. The bodies of six men and two women were brought in soon after, some of the bodies being at first loft at the receiving hospital, whore the Injured wore also taken. In a short time thirteen bodies lay on the floor £nd on the marble slabs of the morgue awaiting identification, and heartrending scenes wore witnessed as friends camo forward to claim their dead. The list of the identified Is as" follows: MARTIN KELLY. Oakland,AsslstantC'hlet Wharfinger for the State. A. 11. AUSTIN of Austin & Phelps, San Francisco. MISS FLORENCE AUSTIN. MRS. BRYAN O’CONNOR,widow of the deceased member of the firm of O’Connor, Moffatt & Co.. San Francisco. J. R. IRWIN, sewing machine agent, Oakland. E- R. ROBINSON. San Francisco. LUIGI MALTESTA, San Francisco, Cant. JOHN DWYER. Sacramento. MR. WILLIAMS, San Francisco. 11. W. AULD (colored). Honolulu. The two MISSES KIERNAN, San Francisco. H. MALTERA. San Francisco. The experience of the passengers In the first coach, as related by those who fortunately escaped, was horrible In the extreme. F. F. Finley, of San Francisco, one of the passengers, told a graphic story of the disaster. “We left the city,” he said, “on the 1:25 train for Alameda on the narrowgiiage. I was seated on the front seat of the first car, facing the engine. All went well until just as we approached the drawbridge crossing San Antonio creek. As we drew near to the bridge it seemed to me the draw was open and that a fearful accident was inevitable. Just then a man jumped from the engine into the water, and then came a crash. A horrible crushing of timber and snapping of heavy Iron-work followed, and at once con- ? stprnatlon prevailed In the car. The ' next thing I knew I found myself blindly groping for the door, which I fortunately found and opened. When I found myself on thq platform I gradually worked my way by climbing and holding on to the front of the car to the roof, which I had just reached when that end of the car rose out of the water, and quite a number of people escaped in this manner, principally women and children. The car was about two-thfrds full when we left the wharf, and I should judge there were at least fifty people In it. There was a fearful outcry when the car began to fill, but this was almost immediately hushed in one long final wall of despair.” James Dunlap, who was tending the bridge at the time of the accident,said: “I was in charge at the tima and had just opened the draw to to allow the yacht Juanita to pass through. I was In the act of moving the draw back into place when the uptraln from San Francisco came along. That is all I know about it.” He declined to answer the question If it was not rather unusual to open the draw just at the hour when the train was due. The water over whfsu bridge |s which at tftb- fittlifiiof tt$ J 'aWdeiif is ab’ou ISOtPflew wide aiidt feet deep. A passenger train crosses tbe bridge every half hour day and is opj3n>i(lheokeeper is an pposed to, jsi gn»L bl a rod 4 flag. . Thq . • jbridgeteujleE ti says the danger flag was properly sat In the center of the track when the bridge was opened for the yacht Juanita to pass. , ’ It is' known that the engineer ahd fireman both escaped. It seems probable that the terrible accident was duo to the carelessness of the engineer-