Disaster at Bussey Bridge (episode 218)

Transcript

Music

Jake:
[0:05] Welcome to Hub history, where we go far beyond the Freedom Trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston. The Hub of the Universe.
This is Episode 2 18. Disaster at Bussey Bridge Hi, I’m Jake.
This week, I’m talking about one of the worst railroad accidents to ever occur in Massachusetts.
On March 14th, 18 87 a train loaded with suburban commuters was on its way from Dedham to Park Square Station in Boston, stopping in West Roxbury and Roslindale along the way,
moments before it would have passed through Forest Hills. Disaster struck.
By the time the engineer turned around, all he could see was a cloud of dust and a pile of twisted debris where nine passenger cars should have been in a split second.
A normal morning commute was transformed into a nightmare of death and dismemberment for hundreds of passengers.
But before I talk about the disaster at Bussey Bridge, it’s time for a word from the sponsor of this week’s podcast.
Liberty and Co. Sells unique products inspired by the American Revolution, and many of them have themes tied to the historical events, locations and people of Boston’s past.

[1:20] For the next two weeks, they’re holding their biggest preorder sale ever, with eight brand new T shirt designs dropping on April 1st.
Boston history fans might be interested in the rebellious stripes shirt bearing the banner of the Sons of Liberty that you can see at the Old State House Museum.
Or you might prefer the John Hancock Shipping Company design, featuring the most famous signature in American history, superimposed over the image of a merchant ship like the ones that built the Hancock fortune.
I think my favorite is an appeal to heaven, with those words emblazoned over a green pine tree on a white background, adopting the flag of the Massachusetts Navy from back when we had our own Navy.

[2:03] There are five more brand new revolution inspired designs to choose from, and the more you preorder by March 31st, the more you save for each additional shirt you bundle into your preorder the price per shirt drops.
Just remember, you only have two weeks from the time this airs to bundle and save.
You don’t need a discount code to get this great deal. Just be sure to get your pre order in before the end of March.
Visit Liberty and dot C o to see all the options and place your order.
That’s L I b e r t y a n d dot c o or follow the link in this week’s show notes.
And now it’s time for this week’s main topic.

[2:46] 134 years ago, the morning of March 14th, 18 87 dawned clear and chilly, getting up to about 34 degrees at 6 a.m.
When fireman Albert Billings, an engineer, Walter White, got up a head of steam and brought their engine from the Boston and Providence Railway engine house in debt, um, to the elegant train station a few yards away,
the author of a 1975 Yankee magazine article wrote that there,
that engineer White, a 31 year veteran on the Boston Dedham run, cautiously backed into the train of nine open platform red varnished coaches that made up the 7 a.m. train to Boston.
The yard man dropped the pen into the coupling and whiten the engine were tied to the head end.
This was the only day in the week when he would trail nine cars for on Mondays, the passenger load required one extra car.

[3:37] The train rolled north up the tracks through dead Um, and into West Roxbury, with service scheduled to take it through Roslindale to Forest Hill Station, then onto the Railroads terminal station at Park Square, a block from Boston Public Garden.
A wire service story published that day in papers all over the country described the trip immediately.
Behind the locomotive was a passenger car and then seven other ordinary day cars, most of them of the old fashioned type to at least with cast iron stoves in the middle of the cars, and the rare was brought up by the smoking car.
Nine cars in all stops were made at Spring Street, West Roxbury, Highland, Central and Roslindale stations.
And on leaving the last station. About 300 people were onboard, mostly working men and women, shopping store girls with lunch bags in hand, chatting and laughing merrily, and a few businessmen.

[4:33] This was a commuter train on the very stretch of track where the idea of commuter rail had been invented.
Starting at 18 39 the Boston and Providence Railroad began offering reduced store commuted fares for passengers travelling between Denver and Boston without luggage, opening the possibility of daily travel between a home in the suburbs and a work place in the city.

[4:55] Taking advantage of that commuter service on a cold march morning almost a half century later were a bookkeeper, a police sergeant in a patrolman, an attorney, a druggist, a freight clerk, a seamstress and several shop girls.
Some of the commuters chatted with neighbors or coworkers. Some read the morning newspapers.
Perhaps some of them were reading news reports about an investigation into the cause of a deadly train wreck in White River Junction, Vermont, about five weeks earlier,
when an overnight express from Boston to Montreal plunged off a bridge into the White River, trapping dozens of passengers in the burning wreckage below and ejecting others into the subzero nighttime temperatures.
When the smoke cleared, 37 were dead, 50 were injured and only about 25 of those on board remained unheard back in the smoking car that brought up the rear of the Boston bound train.
Four acquaintances played cards and enjoyed cigars on their way to work.
Nothing seemed to miss as the train steamed out of Roslindale Village and started toward Forest Hills.
It ran parallel to Washington Street at the top of a tall embankment that kept the railroad tracks separate from the surface streets.
For most of this distance, neighborhood streets were south and east of the tracks, while Bussey Farm, which is now the Arnold Arboretum, laid north and west of the tracks.
The only crossing in this section came where South Street made a lazy S turn as it passed under the embankment.
And they’re the Bussey Bridge spanned the street below.

[6:25] The bridge was about 120 ft long, crossing the street on a long diagonal line, so the span was at an oblique angle to the 40 ft tall granted abutments.
At each end, on a perfect day, the 7 a.m. train would roll through on a perfect day. The 7 a.m. train would roll through Forest Hills Station 15 minutes after leaving Denham Square, including the five stops it made in between.

[6:49] A later report from the Massachusetts railroad commissioner stated the train was from 5 to 7 minutes late when it left the Roslindale station.
The distance from this station of the bridge is about 3/5 of a mile.
Walter E. White, the engineer, testified that he had about £90 of steam and worked steam with the throttle open two or three notches all the time after leaving Roslindale,
but that he had not, in his opinion, acquired a speed of about more than 15 miles an hour.
Because the air brakes came off slowly and retarded the train, the condition of the wreck indicated that the train must have been going considerably faster than the engineer supposed.
The experts generally place the rate at 30 miles an hour or more.

[7:34] The engineer also stated that he believed the speed limit across the bridge to be 12 miles an hour,
and his willingness to testify that he was going 15 despite the infraction, perhaps leading to severe consequences, aren’t in a great deal of credibility in the eyes of the commissioners.
Luckily for Heisenberg, I mean, Walter White, the superintendent of the railroad, testified that the speed restriction has been lifted after the bridge was rebuilt in 18 76.
Neither White nor any of the 300 passengers he carried had any idea that something had gone wrong until the engine reached the far end of Bussey Bridge, the commissioner’s report continues.
The engineer testified that when he struck the bridge, everything seemed to be all right that he did not notice any settling or swinging.
But when he came to the Boston end of the bridge, he saw the forward end of the engine come up with a jar.
And when the drivers meaning the engines four driving wheels came along, there was a shock,
that he looked round and saw the forward car was off the track and that he had broken away from it and the coupling was broken and that the car was off the track and going to the East Side.

[8:44] 1956 Article in the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society bulletin MB.
Wakefield gives a step by step description of what happened next.
But keep in mind that for the commuters chatting away on the train, everything described here unfolded in a matter of seconds before their brains could comprehend what happened Wakefield rights.
There was a slight depression in the bridge as the engine left it, resulting in the shock noted by engineer White.
This depression had increased when the first car left the bridge, so that as it went up off the bridge, it jumped the track to the east.
It’s rear trucks or its wheels being torn from it.
The second car dropped still further, receiving a much more severe concussion at the end of the bridge.
But the train of seven cars behind it crashed into its rear and threw it up over the edge of the abutment, displacing both its trucks and leaving them under its rear end.

[9:40] When the second car struck the abutment, the third car was driven against it with such force, that car being just upon the point of leaving the solid part of the bridge at the middle of the trust,
that it’s Miller platform, was crushed on top of and into the platform of the second car and became inextricably entangled with it.
This may have saved the third car from going into the street, as it must have formed a very strong and close connection between the two cars, which in turn helped greatly to carry the front end of the third car over the chasm.
As it was, this car lost both trucks. It’s floor systems were almost demolished, and its sides were shattered and loosened at every joint.
It was found on the embankment a few feet behind. The second car, having lost its front platform, which had finally been torn out, remained entangled with the rear platform of the second car.
The fourth car was not able to leap the chasm. It had not, however, fallen so far that it’s roof did not come up above the line of the abutment.
This car was stopped by the abutment but the roof continued and landed on the embankment.
The front end of the body of the car, striking the abutment at an angle of 21 degrees, was crushed in for half its length, and the remainder of the car veered off to the left or west side of the track and fell into the street, landing on its right or east side.

[10:59] The fifth car followed the course of the remnants of the fourth car, struck its rear end and was telescoped by it for half its length.
The sixth car fell diagonally across the street. It was badly broken and twisted, and its top was nearly torn off.
The seventh car landed in the street. Upright was the least damage of those which went through the bridge.

[11:20] The eighth car landed in the street behind the seventh car, which was tipped to the east side and was badly shattered.
The ninth car being the combination smoker and baggage car, turned over and landed in the road upside down.
Most of the resulting 23 dead, with the exception of a few who were instantly killed, were found in the wreckage of the 4th, 5th, 6th and 9th cars.
A large number of the more than 100 injured were found in these cars. Also at the moment the engine began crossing the bridge, the bridge began crumbling beneath it.
Momentum carried the first three cars across, heavily damaged but mostly upright.
The rest of the cars smashed into each other, the bridge apartment and the street below, winding up as a crumpled tangle of twisted steel and splintered wood, described here by the first wire service story to carry news of the disaster to the rest of the country.
In the roadway, under the bridge, in the open space of 150 ft between abutment and abutment, there were in an instant piling up the debris of six cars, interwoven almost inextricably with the trusses and girders of the iron bridge,
and within and among which the passengers were held fast, are writhing in agony, some of them crushed almost beyond recognition of the human shape,
and one or two of them beheaded.

[12:41] To such as had power to move. The means of extrication were made the easier by the completeness of the wreck for the sides, and ends of the cars were mashed out, leaving more or less free egress.
But in the two cars which struck the abutment, the scene was fearful.
The wood and debris was piled up about one of the stoves. It was on the very point of setting the wreck on fire when the earliest arrivals at the scene,
and those who have already succeeded in extricating themselves unhurt managed to drag the stove out through the broken walls of the car and deposited on the roadway.

[13:15] The evening edition of The Boston Globe from the day of the wreck invites the reader to picture what the aftermath must have looked like and how difficult it would make any attempt at rescue.
Imagine if you can what could be left intact after such a catastrophe Out of the broken and mutilated windows of the car before the next was fairly upon it, three or four girls and a couple of men were hurled.
They have dislocated spines and broken limbs. Their heads and faces are cut and bruised and lacerated, but they are yet alive and may survive.
When the accident took place, those who were in the suspended cars and who had the strength to do so crawled out through the windows,
and amid the din of the crash and the breaking and creaking of the timbers made still more intensified by the whale of the dying and the screeching of those more frightened than injured.
They found their way on hands and knees to the street below, or to the top of the high stone wall. Above that mention of three or four girls being hurled out the windows of the train as it went off, the track set the tone. For much of the initial reporting.
The newspapers made much of the pain and suffering by women and girls, with the evening globe continuing.
The majority of the passengers in the cars which plunged to death were women, all young, happy, hopeful creatures whose tiny satchels with carefully prepared lunches told pathetically as no words possibly can the circumstances of their daily lives.

[14:41] The globe’s fixation with the suffering of women and girls continues with a description of the rescue attempt.
The first body reach was that of an unfortunate woman who was pinned down in the car with the face jammed between two cells and, in the most shocking condition that she was alive seemed doubtful.
Still, the body was moved when, to the terror of her rescuers, it was found that the head in one arm were severed from the body, as though done with a knife covered with the rubbish of the wreck.
As she lay there, no possible identification of the remains could be made,
and after fruitless attempts to remove her with their hands, the rescuers obtained saws and jack screws and, after much difficult work, succeeded in extricating all the remains of the woman who put a moment before was full of life and hope and ambition.
The body was first removed, then the mutilated, an unrecognizable head and finally the arm tenderly. The remains were covered and soon after, removed to forest hills and later taken to the city morgue.
Then near the stove and lying almost in each other’s arms were two other young women, both dead, evidently instantly killed, their heads crushed, also beyond recognition.
They also lay wedged in between the debris of the wreck penned down so tightly that action was impossible, and here again it required jackscrews, levers and saws to extricate the remains.

[16:08] One woman who suffered only and miraculously enough from slight injury to her feet, was removed from this impromptu coffin and carried home another woman.
They cramped between two car seats with life extinct, not a mark appeared upon her body to indicate how death approached, extended with arms, pushed forward as though endeavoring to ward off the crashing timbers, which fell about but did not touch her.
She lay there as calm, appearing as though in sleep.
But the awful position in which the body lay left no doubt, but that in the upheaval of the overturning car, the woman became wedged between the seats and her young life, slowly crushed from the frail body.
It was an awful sight.

[16:52] First hand reports from survivors convey how terrifying and confusing it was to be traveling along as normal, then suddenly have the world explode around them.
George Sanford had gotten on the train in Roslindale with his mother, and the initial wire service story described chatting with the neighbor on the ride, Then being paralyzed by the sudden and unexpected violence of the crash,
he said, the floor of our car seemed to be forced up to the roof the entire coach having collapsed.
Apparently, when the crash came, our heads were banged against the roof.
While the seats were strewn about everywhere.
Many people were under the seats, and some were crushed between them directly in front of a sad a man named Ryan, one of my neighbors in Roslindale.
We were conversing with him at the moment of the crash. Ryan was half turned in his seat as he talked, and the moment after the wreck, when I saw him again, he was actually run through and through by a splinter from the bottom of the car.
My mother and I were fascinating between our seat and Ryan’s By managed to break off Ryan’s seat and release ourselves.
My mother had fainted, and at first I thought she was dead.
I pulled her out through a window, and she soon revived in the open air.

[18:07] William Alden was taking tickets in the first passenger car when the train hit the bridge.
In a deposition, the investigating board asked him what happened to you.
Well, the first I knew I was sitting right on the floor, in the middle of the car, the seats and everything piled on top of me.
He had been thrown toward the rear of the train, though he wasn’t sure how far and the questioning continued.
Were you stunned and falling? I must have been unconscious when you picked yourself up. You found that all but three or four left the car.
Well, three or four. Somewhere in that vicinity.
What did you do then?
As soon as I could get my senses together, I looked in that car to see if there was anybody in there.
And then I got out of the car and went into the next one to see if there was anybody in there.
What did you find there? I didn’t find anybody in that one either. They had all got out of that.

[19:05] What was the condition of that car? Well, it was all broke. All tore to pieces.
Then you went down the embankment. Yes, sir. Well, what did you do then?
Well, we helped all we could to get the wounded and dead out of the wreck.
Describe as well as you can. All you found there. We found men and women in there. I couldn’t say how many.
We got them out. The best we could.
Did you take out any dead bodies? Well, there were two that were dead.
Did you see any other dead bodies? Yes, I saw two or three more taken out, but I didn’t assist in taking them out.

[19:46] The March 23rd Globe reported, the testimony of Mr Charles Farrington, a stenographer, had been riding in the next car behind conductor Alden.
I was sitting in the rear seat of the third car. The first thing I noticed was the derailment of the front end of the car. This was one third of the way across the bridge.
I was facing the window, talking to a young lady. In less than six seconds, the rear end of the car seemed to sink, and the heads of the passengers in front appeared at least 6 ft higher than our own.
Then came a violent shock that tore away the flooring. The front platform of the car was carried forward and struck the abutment. The rear end of the car also struck the apartment with great force.
I don’t think we were going any faster than usual that morning. The train has often gone faster.
During the fall, the car was blacker than I ever saw anything before.
The first thing I saw when I got out was conductor Tilden, who lay unconscious and dying.
Then I saw a conductor, Alden of the third car, straightening up the stove, which has set fire to the woodwork, he said to me, Get some water to put out the blaze with. That’s a good fellow.
I hasten to the ditch with a bucket and poured the water on the fire, which would burn a place about 4 ft square.
Conductor Tilden was breeding much as an exhausted dog does in hot weather.

[21:08] Tilden would not survive. Alicia Anise was the brakeman in the third car, the combination baggage and smoking car.
He testified about the experience at the opposite end of the train from Mr Alden.

[21:25] The first thing I felt was a shock. I looked out of the door and at the same time the crash came, I saw that the bridge had given way and felt that the car was fast going down.
I didn’t think of jumping, but when inside or was inside and I laid down hadn’t more than laid down before my car went with the rest of them, pause for a moment about halfway down, rolled on its side and then completely over and landed on its top in the street.
The chairman of the board of inquiry then asked him, Were you bruised at all Yes. Slightly bruised and a little bit injured inside, I think.
Then what did you do then? I started up the bank to go towards the station to flag the express, which came along, and I met one of the track hands who was there as it happened. They were working there and I sent him back and came back and went to work to do what I could.
What did you do? Well, I help get people out of the cars as best I could. That’s all I can say.

[22:25] The violence of the first passenger car hitting the stone bridge abutment shared the trucks or wheels off the passenger car, and it broke the coupling that held it to the engine.
This left the engine commanded by Walter White, rolling down the tracks unharmed but with no train to pull behind.

[22:42] Wakefield’s article describes how the experienced engineer reacted when he realized what happened naturally.
Engineer whites first impulse was to stop, but instead he reversed his engine when he again looked back to discover the 1st and 2nd cars were completely off the tracks,
and also that a dense cloud of smoke was arising from the abutment, which indicated to him that the cars had gone through the bridge.
Mr. White, knowing that he and the firemen could not do much themselves, highball the engine toward forest hills, blowing the whistle constantly to bring the people of the sleepy town from their homes to aid the injured.
This quick thinking resulted in the arriving of first aid to the scene sooner than it would have arrived under normal conditions.
The primary reason for getting up steam and racing to forest hills was the knowledge of another train that was going to get them to work on another bridge.
Arriving at Forest Hills, engineer White informed Mr Worley to align the switch so Mr Prince’s work train could back up to the wreck.
Running down to Prince’s train, Mr White bellied up to the cab to inform him of the disaster and then directed the station agent to telephone for doctors and ambulances.
After Prince had taken his train up to the wreck, engineer White followed with his.
It was due to this wise action of whites that notice that the catastrophe was immediately received at the office of the superintendent of the road.

[24:04] The police and fire departments were subsequently summoned and physicians insurgents were secured and promptly taken to the rack.
Neighbors and shopkeepers around the collapsed bridge were the first to respond, digging frantically among the debris with their bare hands, hammering the twisted metal with shoes and rocks to reach the trapped passengers who screamed in fear or pain.

[24:26] They were soon joined by the track laying crew sent on the train from Forest Hills with engineer temperance.

[24:33] As the news spread, people began pouring into forest hills from all directions.
Physicians who kept offices in Park Square, ran to the adjoining Boston and Providence Terminal and took a train directly to the wreck site to begin administering aid.
Family and friends of the passengers and determined Roslindale made their way to the wreck by foot and horse cart to search for their loved ones with the railroad. Commissioners report later saying more than half received injuries of a serious nature.
Many of the victims being residents of Roslindale, were cared for by their friends and relatives.
Some were brought to the city, where arrangements were made by the railroad for the reception at hospitals.
But as soon as ambulances and other means of conveyance could be obtained, most of the sufferers were taken to their homes.

[25:20] A chemical fire engine came and put out the blazes that were just beginning to spread from the wood stoves that heated each passenger car,
and police officers rushed to the scene and attempted to hold back the thousands of people driven by the more ghoulish human impulses who streamed into the area to just have a look.
As the Globe’s initial report continues with the news of the wreck, there was one grand exodus from the city every train brought car after car load of the curious.
Each train was doubled in length, and even then there was hardly room for the travelers, While from Forest Hills to the wreck, there was one continuous stream of pedestrians coming and going at the wreck.
The relic seekers were in force, and the stream of people that turned homeward must have carried with it the major portion of one of the cars.

[26:09] After a long day of digging with increasingly better tools as rescue trains carrying heavy equipment and laborers arrived. All the survivors have been freed from the wreckage by lunchtime, and nearly all the bodies and parts of bodies were recovered by sundown.
Two dozen bleeding and broken survivors from Roslindale limped back down the track on foot to make their way home.
At the end of the day, 23 people have been killed and about 115 were injured.

[26:40] The Diary of Diatoms Henry W. Richards, records the accident itself in an understated way, but also notes that the railroad would have to divert trains around the broken bridge until a replacement could be constructed March 14th.
One of the worst accidents on the railroad ever known in this vicinity occurred this morning to the train, which left Datum at 7 a.m. Bussey bridge.
All trains must go via Reedville until a new bridges built.

[27:10] The investigation into the cause of the crash began while the search for survivors was still ongoing.
Among the debris pile in South Street, where pieces of the bridge itself and attention soon turned to the metal hangers that attached the iron bridge to the granted abutments.
As rescuers were trying to reach the survivors, investigators were also sifting through the wreckage, and when they found the hangars in the street, they were all badly rusted, and many of them had corroded and cracked to the point where they could no longer carry a load.
Wakefield’s article, drawing heavily from the Railroad commissioners report, says,
the testimony of the passengers employees on the train and of two outside witnesses shows conclusively that the trouble originated on the north after the bridge,
and the evidence as a whole clearly indicates that the original cause of the disaster was the breaking of the hangars at the joint block in the north end of the humans trust.
These hangers were found in the street and were examined by several people, including one of the commissioners. On the morning of the accident, they were broken the upper loops with part of the shank remaining in the joint block and the lower loops, the remainder of the shank lying nearby.

[28:25] One hangar was broken through the shank in about 7/8 of this break was old and the other hangar, the lower loop, was broken on the side.
At its junction with the shank at the shank, there were indications of an old breakthrough, about 1/8 of the sectional area.
The hangers should have been die forged. However, there are loop welded and the welding is were imperfect.
The hangers held up the floor beams. When the floor beams fell, the floor system would fall.
And yet it never occurred to the man who was supposed to have superintendent the construction of the bridge and to whom was entrusted the examination of the bridge every spring and fall.
It never occurred to him that the strength and condition of these hangars were vital and should have been an important feature in his examination.
Moreover, he did not know how the hangars were made. His suppositions in regard to their size and shape were incorrect, and he did not have, nor did the road have any drawings showing their construction and dimensions.

[29:26] The eccentricity so called of these hangers was unnecessary.
The eccentricity caused the strain to be trans verse and unequally distributed in consequence. There of the hangars were for their work in the bridge, not nearly as strong as the same amount of material would have been had they been properly designed.
Portions of them, without making any allowances for the jar of the train, were subjected by each passing engine, two strains approaching, if not an excessive, the elastic limit.
The margins of strength, if any, was so small as to be inconsistent with safety.
Iron will surely break if repeatedly subjected to a load which strains it materially beyond its elastic limit.
The hangers have been breaking for some time, with the net result that on the morning of the accident there was little more than the equivalent of one hanger left.
In short, the hangars were unfit for their work.
It seems very probable that the humans trust stood up until the cast iron joint block in which the broken hangers were located was struck by the fourth or fifth car.
This blow knocked out laterally the block and the two adjoining members in the trust fell to pieces carrying with it the ill fated Dead End branch, local with its cargo of early morning commuters.

[30:45] The Massachusetts Board of Railroad Commissioners launched an immediate investigation into the bridge failure.
The Boston and Providence Railroad had never had a fatal accident since the first section of tracks opened 53 years earlier.
How could a bridge on one of their most heavily trafficked routes deteriorate so badly without anyone noticing?
And was the bridge properly constructed in the first place?
When the board’s report was released a few months later, there was damning.
Mr. George F. Fulsome, the superintendent of construction, testified that since 18 61 he had had charge of the construction and repairs of buildings and bridges that for 10 years.
Previous to that date, he had worked as a machinist in the shops of the company that, up to the time of his appointment as superintendent, he had had no practical experience in bridge building,
that his first experience in Iron Bridge building was in connection with these trusses in the Bussey Bridge that he was at the bridge but little while the construction was going on,
that he had other business to attend to and that he trusted holy to Mr Humans to build the bridge properly and put it up in proper shape.

[31:55] It further appears that the railroad company employed no expert to pass either upon the original design of the bridge or upon the bridge after it was constructed and in fact consulted nobody in regard to it.
If the management of the railroad had taken the trouble to make inquiry, it would have learned that the company which Mr Humans professor represent did not in fact exist,
and that not only the design but the quality of much of the materials and workmanship of the bridge depended solely upon his ability, honesty and faithfulness.
As a matter of fact, the material and workmanship with the compression members appear to have been sufficiently good.
The design and many of its details prove to be bad.
Such a way of doing business would be lax in a purely commercial transaction, in contracting for and constructing a bridge in dealing with the matter involving the safety of life. It was culpable.

[32:55] It’s never a good thing when a state commission describes your company’s behavior as culpable.

[33:02] Along with supervising construction of the bridge, Folsom was supposed to be responsible for inspecting it every spring and every fall.
Whoever the design of the bridge made the hangers difficult to see, so he decided to ignore them.
The commissioners wrote that he could not examine the stirrup straps and never thought they were an important feature of the bridge until he saw them lying on the ground.
Such was the examination made by the superintendent of construction to ensure the safety of passengers riding over that bridge.
It never occurred to the man to whom and it never occurred to the man to whom was entrusted the examination of the bridge every spring and every fall.
It never occurred to him that the strength and condition of these hangers was vital and should have been an important feature in his examination.

[33:52] Among almost 400 pages of photos, diagrams and transcripts of depositions, there’s a copy of a letter that the commissioner sent to the management of the Boston and Providence Railroad in December 18 81,
over five years before the accident.

[34:10] West Roxbury Bridge over the highway near Bussey Farms.
The superstructure of this bridge is an oddity among bridges.
If it has never been tested under a given load, the commissioner suggest whether it would not be wise and prudent to test it now and perhaps at stated intervals hereafter shorter or longer a year or more according to the behavior of the bridge under load.
The test to consist of putting on a load somewhat heavier than the bridges ever called upon to bear in the course of your business, noting the load put on the deflection taken by the bridge under the load and the amount of recovery after the load is removed,
noting also it’s lateral stiffness and strength.
A series of such records would show conclusively whether or not the bridge tested was maintaining its strength and safety.

[35:01] The commission found that the railroad had conducted at least one test after that letter was sent, but the results were never submitted to the state, and the suggested follow up tests to confirm the bridge’s resiliency were never performed.

[35:16] In an article about railroad bridges before 1900 for the railroad history journal, Mark Aldrich concluded that the railroads. Negligence went beyond the failure of the bridge hangers.

[35:28] While the hangers caused the bridge to fail. As the news and the official investigation pointed out, the disaster also revealed a potpourri of defective management and operating practices.
The railroad had exercised no supervision over the contractor who built the bridge under what may have been fraudulent conditions.
It had never been tested, nor at a trained engineer ever inspected it.
Moreover, the train that broke through was equipped with old style Westinghouse straight air brakes that lost pressure when the train parted.
These have been obsolete since 18 74 when Westinghouse introduced an automatic break that applied the brakes.
In such a situation, it was estimated that the train was travelling no more than 25 miles an hour when the bridge broke, assuming standard braking efficiency.
The editor calculated that with automatic brakes, the train would have stopped before the last three cars went over the edge, while those that preceded would have settled with the trust rather than crashing into the abutment, therefore causing many fewer casualties.

[36:33] So trains that lacked the latest safety equipment and didn’t carry enough crew were running over a bridge that had been designed by a charlatan, built a faulty materials and never properly tested or inspected.
The board of railroad commissioners laid blame for the worst railroad accident in Massachusetts history up to that point squarely at the feet of the Boston and Providence Railroad’s management writing as part of their conclusion that a preventable accident is a crime.

[37:04] The lawsuits would drag on for years and cost the company a fortune.
By August of 18 88 news about the Bussey Bridge cases had long since fallen off the front pages.
On August 2nd, the Globe carried a story on Page eight saying that the Bussey Bridge disaster had cost the button of Providence Railroad around million, which would be about $29 million.
Today, it has stated that the largest sum paid any one of the injured was $25,000 and that the whole cost of the company was about around millions of dollars.
The bills of physicians paid by the company being about $100,000.1 of the profession receiving $5000 for his services.
It has also stated that the fees of Winslow Warren, who had charge of the case, is for the company exceeded $50,000.

[37:58] The company’s lawyer must have done a respectable job because the equivalent of $29 million seems like a small price to pay for 23 deaths and over 100 serious injuries caused by a giant corporations.
Extreme negligence.

[38:14] A profile of attorney Winslow Warren, written by William V. Kellen in 1931 focuses on his work sorting out the Bussey Bridge case and that newsworthy $50,000 fee.

[38:27] The most important event in his legal career came to him from his appointment as clerk of the Boston and Providence railroad company through Charles H. Warren, the president, his father’s brother.
This office secured for him from time to time, considerable practice in the way of real estate matters and the varied railroad litigation.
In March 18 87 occurred the Bussey Bridge disaster on the dead Um, branch of that railroad through the giving way of a bridge over a street near Roslindale and the consequent wrecking of an early morning train crowded with commuters.
Several passengers were killed and hundreds were more or less seriously hurt or their belongings damaged.
The railroad company, with good sense and judgment having little to expect from the hands of Juries in these circumstances, turned over to Mr Warren the settlement of all these cases, thus tacitly admitting liability.
The claimants were said to have exceeded the number of passengers on the train, and damages claimed ranged from thousands of dollars for death or severe or incurable injuries to the price of a new hat.
Mr. Warren had able assistance in adjusting these claims so far as bodily injuries were in question.
And Dr Maurice H. Richardson, the brilliant surgeon and doctor. George L. Walton, a noted neurologist and an authority on railroad spine.

[39:51] The hundreds of claims involving millions of dollars were eventually passed upon and settled by Mr Warren to the reasonable satisfaction, at least of every claimant for not a single case of all those upon which suits were brought was pressed to a trial or submitted to a jury.
It may be set in passing as showing the ingratitude and soullessness of corporations that Mr Warren’s very reasonable and judged by modern standards.
Ridiculously small bill for his services was the only one the railroad company protested before it was paid.

[40:24] In October 18 89 about 2.5 years after the accident, the Globe reported on the outcome of what was described as the last case resulting from the Bussey Bridge collapse in the suit of Robert J.
Moffett versus the Boston and Providence Railroad for injuries received at the Bussey Bridge disaster judgment has been entered for the plaintiff for $8000.
This is the last of the suits on account of the railroad accident, all the rest having been tried or settled.

[40:55] The lawsuits may have taken over two years, but if you can believe it, the railroads detour through.
Reedville only lasted for one week, with a temporary bridge over South Street put in place just seven days after the accident, as Henry Richards again recorded in his diary March 21st,
the car’s resumed their regular trips over the West Roxbury Branch Railroad this morning, a temporary bridge having been completed at the place of the late disaster.

[41:24] There aren’t a lot of silver linings to be found in the story of the Bussey Bridge disaster, I guess. For one thing, it forced the Boston and Providence to undertake a statewide safety inspection of their other bridges.
It also brought attention to the Roslindale neighborhood, which had been annexed to Boston as part of West Roxbury in 18 74 but remained mostly rural until after the disaster put it in the spotlight.

[41:50] In an article about 125th anniversary of the accident in 2012, Roslindale Historical Society president Kathy Slade was quoted as saying, Roslindale was really considered the country back then.
We had a big population boom after the crash, and that’s the cause. No one knew much about the neighborhood before it happened.
Today, the dead um branch south of the Spring Street split is entirely gone.
The engine house where Walter White started his day is barely a memory. The elegant Devon station has been replaced by a municipal parking lot, and voters recently rejected a proposal that would have turned part of the remaining right of way into a rail trail.
The commuter rails Needham line still makes the rest of the stops that White made that fateful morning West Roxbury Highland Central, which is now Bellevue and Roslindale Village.
But when the tracks crossed South Street on the way to Forest Hills, they’re carried by a massive granted archway instead of an incompetently designed irons ban.

[42:56] To learn more about the Bussey Bridge disaster, check out this week’s show notes at hub history dot com slash 218 I’ll have links to news stories about the wreck from The Boston Globe and newspapers around the country.
I’ll also link to the indispensable railroad commissioners report and all the articles I quoted from in the show Before I let you go, I have some listener feedback to share.
First up is an email from Eric, a newish patreon sponsor.
When I saw that his address was in Michigan, I asked how he came to listen to Hub history, and he responded, You asked how I came to find Hub history. Being from Traverse City, Michigan.
It was the result of a trip to Boston to see three Red Sox games in 2018.
It was a dream come true to finally make it to Fenway, and in doing so, I more or less fell in love with the city.
Since then, I’ve sought out as much about Boston and its history as I can books, audible books, documentaries, podcasts, which led me to hub history.
It’s been very entertaining and a valuable resource, especially with the links to books.

[44:08] I was supposed to return to Boston in August of 2020 but we all know what happened with 2020.

[44:15] I’ll be returning soon with the list as long as my arm of things to do and see.
Thanks for your work on the exceptional podcast. Keep it up. I’ll be listening.

[44:27] Thank you very much for the kind words. Eric. Here’s hoping that you can get back to Boston safely soon.

[44:36] Listener Michelle s noted an anniversary on January 30th and tweeted just saw in this day in history.
It’s the anniversary of the day Charles, the first of England was executed.
This hub history episode remains one of my all time favorites, and she linked to our episode 97 where we discussed the two regicide who sentenced the King to death and found refuge in Boston.

[45:01] And finally we had a very surprising and very affecting email from someone with firsthand knowledge of World Airways Flight 30.
About this time last year, we aired the story of a terrifying and mysterious crash at Logan Airport as episode 1 75 a man named Don recently stumbled across the episode and shared his experience of the crash.

[45:27] Just came across.
Episode 1 75. Concerning World Airways Flight 30.
I was the toughs dental student mentioned in the podcast. I was in the fourth row 39 years later.
It was a bittersweet remembrance of the night I pulled the pilot, co pilot and flight attendants. With the help of another passenger out of the water, I saw one of the Metcalf struggling off the left side of the plane.
I told everyone I could of authority that night and called the state police in Mass port to relate the apparent drowning.
Excellent job with the podcast, a night I would rather not repeat.

[46:08] The Metcalfe’s were a father and son duo who disappeared during the crash because they had gotten onto the flight at the last minute. They didn’t appear on the passenger manifest, and the authorities didn’t know to look for them.
Despite it turns out, having been notified by Don and several other witnesses, their bodies were never found.

[46:30] I never thought I’d get an email like that one.

[46:34] I love getting listener feedback, whether you’re in a long distance relationship with Boston or if you witnessed a tragic moment in history, we’re happy to hear your episode suggestions, factual corrections and alternate sources that we might have missed.
If you’d like to leave us some feedback like Eric, Michelle and Don did, you can email us at podcast at hub history dot com. We’re hub history on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Or go to hub history dot com and click on the Contact US link while you’re on the site, hit the subscribe blank and be sure that you never miss an episode.
If you subscribe on Apple podcasts, please consider writing us a brief review. If you do drop us a line and I’ll send you a hub mystery sticker as a token of appreciation, that’s all for now.

Music

Jake:
[47:24] Stay safe out there, listeners.