Engineering Tragedy

At 7:27 p.m. the No. 5 rounded the final bend. Running between 10 to 15 miles per hour, she began her slow crawl across the bridge. At first the crossing proceeded normally. The bridge creaked as always, but held as the Socrates, the Columbia, and then the first few cars pushed forward onto the north side of the bridge. At 7:28 p.m. the engineer of the Socrates, Dan McGuire, heard the distinct sound of a loud crack. He knew immediately something was wrong, terribly wrong.

The bridge was breaking apart. The engineer of the Socrates pulled the throttle and ran his engine the remaining few feet to the abutment and to safety. The other cars were dragged forward when the second engine, The Columbia, broke from the Socrates, crashed into the abutment, and fell in the gorge. Passengers were jostled and thrown about by a violent series of bumps when the cars derailed and the track disintegrated underneath them. Then there was darkness…silence…falling. Cars began to crash one by one into the frozen creek. It was a sickening and horrifying sound as the first cars slammed into the gorge, then the rest, falling or being launched off the edge, struck the car in front of it. [Source: Engineering Tragedy]