The Trolley of Death (episode 261)

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Jake:
[2:25] Now it’s time for this week’s main topic.

[2:29] As I said, november 7th 1916 was Election Day in boston after vocally opposing women’s suffrage.
President Woodrow, Wilson was up for re election with women able to cast their votes for or against him in 12 of the 48 states,
with some commentators predicting that the 800,000 women voters in Illinois would be the key demographic to swing the presidential election one way or the other,
At home.
The globe predicted that Wilson would carry Massachusetts with a margin of 20,000 votes while bookmakers in Boston, were giving 10-8 odds that the Republican challenger, Charles Hughes would unseat him.
Late editions gave Wilson a solid lead and noted that boston was on track to set a record for the highest voter turnout of all time.
Meanwhile, local paper celebrated the return of the 8th and 9th regiments of the Massachusetts militia who had spent months in Texas defending against Pancho Villa’s cross border raids and were arriving at south station by train that day.

[3:29] The autumn sun had already been down for almost 45 minutes When motorman Gerald Walsh and conductor George mckean boarded car 3 93 the boston elevated railway to start their busy rush hour run through South boston to South station.
Car 3 93 was an old brill street car. There was a barely updated design based on boston’s old horse drawn streetcars instead of standing open like those early horse cars, it was fully enclosed with glass windows on either side,
the open platforms on the front and rear have been converted to enclosed vestibules with narrow open doorways on either side and another sliding door separating them from the passenger compartment.

[4:11] Walsh would stand in the front vestibule to operate the electric motor and the hand crank breaks, while McKeown would ride in the rear vestibule, collecting fares and managing the passengers.
Walsh had worked for the barry for about six months and McKeown for 16,
and neither of them had worked this particular route before, which would take them down P Street and onto sixth, where they turn right onto Summer Street and follow it across the Reserve Shipping Channel through the busy port area,
across Fort Point Channel, past South Station to the corner of Washington street in downtown crossing.

[4:45] The next morning the boston globe reported the car boston bound started from the P Street Barnes and was on its way to the corner of Washington and Summer streets, making many stops to take on the employees at the commonwealth docks and big fish pier,
as well as other business houses Along the route,
The car came along Summer Street extension, and passenger after passenger was taken aboard until the 34 seats were filled.
Then the work of stowing more passengers into the car was undertaken by the conductor until there were seated hanging two straps and huddled together in the aisles and vestibules, 62 passengers whose fares were rung up on the clock,
Eyewitnesses say passengers were packed on the steps and we’re hanging on so crowded was the car, for it’s no uncommon occurrence to pack from 90 to 100 in these cars during the rush hours,
one of the passengers stated that everybody appeared to be in a happy frame of mind, were bent on the full enjoyment of election night and were awaiting their arrival in the city proper to get the first tidings from the bulletin boards.

[5:50] Inside the car, a wooden bench with a padded back ran along each side where the passengers would sit with their backs to the windows, A row of straps hung from the ceiling along either side, giving standing passengers something to hold onto.
By the time the trolley reached the corner of Melcher Street right before the bridge over four point channel. It was 5 25 PM, about 12 minutes into the trip.
At the corner, a small rectangular sign hung from a wire 20 ft above the tracks, emblazoned with the word stop and three inch high black letters on a white background,
not noticing the tiny sign hung high overhead Walsh break the car hard enough to allow a single passenger to hop on, but not hard enough to come to a full stop.
Then he hit the throttle again, trying to make up time on the unfamiliar route.

[6:44] The streetcar may have reached as much as 15 miles an hour when Walsh was startled to see that the iron gates on the Summer Street bridge over the channel were closed, indicating that the bridge itself was open.

[6:57] Instead of being raised in the middle, which tends to give a natural visual indicator of an open bridge.
The drawbridge over Fort Point Channel had two sliding sections,
when a ship approached, draw tender, timothy shea would send assistance out to close the black iron gates, then a section of the inbound and outbound roadways would slide diagonally away from each other and out of the passing ships way,
in the evening darkness.
Gerald Walsh hadn’t seen the metal gates or the red kerosene lamps that were supposed to illuminate them Walsh only had a split second to apply the brakes before the trolley crashed through the gates, barely slowing,
he cranked the brake handle so hard that he bent it, but it wasn’t enough.
So then he yelled, Jump, and proceeded to follow his own advice with a report to the Public Service Commission by Chief Inspector George W.
Bishop. Later stating this car stopped at several points en route to receive and leave passengers and nothing unusual in its operation was observed until it was nearing Fort Point Channel,
when the motor man in charge suddenly discovered that the warning gates were across the street and the drawbridge open,
he claims to have immediately applied the brakes and reversed the current, but the car was so close to the gates, which were only 25 ft from the opening that it crashed through the gates plunged into Fort Point Channel and was at once submerged in water.

[8:23] The motorman jumped to the street and was saved.

[8:28] The statement of the conductor, who had been in the service of the Company 16 months shows that he was in the car collecting fares from the time he left the Edison Electric Light Companies Power Plant on L Street,
until the car reached the bridge and he did not notice anything unusual in its operation previous to striking the gates.
When he reached the rear door and jumped, he landed on the streets so near the opening that he lost his balance and was compelled to dive into the water, from which he was later rescued.
He was apparently unable to fix the rate of speed of the car or to state definitely whether or not the car made a stop at the stop sign near Melcher Street.

[9:08] The motorman and the conductor both managed to save themselves, but most of their passengers weren’t so lucky.
The November eight edition of the globe reported the car was coming along the street at a fairly rapid pace, according to eyewitnesses, when there was a powerful and jerky application of the brakes, which through many of the passengers off their balance,
those on the rear platform, including the conductor, heard the crash of the forward vestibule against the high iron gates and jumped for their lives while the car drove through the gate and took its fatal plunge through the draw,
with a tremendous splash, followed by a gurgling sound that could be heard a long distance.
The ill fated car, with its precious freight, settled in the muddy bottom of the channel, completely submerged.

[9:57] The car teetered on the edge of the bridge for just a second or two before crashing into the water below, with the Globe reporting how the violence of the impact trapped most of the commuters inside the doomed trolley,
judging from the angle in which the car took the plunge, the passengers must have been all thrown into a heap in the forward end of the car as the car disappeared, all being caught in a trap with the doors and windows closed tightly.
The car took a plunge of about 20 ft before striking the water and then settled in about 30 ft of water and mud.
There’s 23 ft of water in the channel at mean low tide, but the tide had been coming in for two hours at the time of the accident.

[10:40] A lucky few managed to smash windows and claw their way out, but most of the passengers were trapped and drowned inside car 3 93.

[10:51] An eyewitness named our trop who was walking to south station to catch his train home.
Told the globe reporters, I distinctly heard a gurgling sound as the water closed in over the car and then the shouts, resulting in the ringing of the alarm attracted my attention,
for we all knew that there had been a wholesale loss of life because of the crowded condition of the car.
I expected to see the surface of the water covered with drowning people, but instead only saw five trying to save their lives after escaping from the wreckage in the channel.

[11:23] A story in the November seven edition of the New York, Tribune confirms how few survivors emerged from the water draw tender TJ shea ran from the controlling house.
The card vanished beneath the water which slapped the piles and added from the impact, smears of light shimmered the water’s dark surface from street lamps, and there was a mighty gurgling and bubbling as the air shot upward from the sunken car.
As Shea watched three or 4 dark shapes shot to the surface and began to flounder about.

[11:58] In the coming weeks and months there would be a massive investigation into motorman Walsh’s actions and the policies of the street railway that allowed this terrible accident to occur.
But in the moments after the crash, rescue was the only thought on the minds of the onlookers.
The lucky few who had made it out of the car and those who had fallen into the water as the car went off the edge were struggling.
Most of the passengers were dressed for work, and leather boots are heavy shoes wearing suits or cover alls,
and the autumn chill meant that most of them were wearing heavy wool overcoats that quickly became waterlogged and started dragging them down toward the darkness of the incoming tide.

[12:40] Harry ross! Captain of the tugboat that had just passed through the drawbridge, sprang into action.
He ordered his men to launch the tugs lifeboats and stand ready with their life rings.
Quickly pulling in three survivors who saturated woolen clothes made them appear to be twice their normal weight.
Somebody ran and knocked insistently on the door of the nearby necco candy factory to ask for ropes that were then lowered from the bridge to the frantically grasping hands below.
That initial new york tribune article tells the story of the immediate rescue efforts. From draw tender. Shay’s perspective.
Shea called to the captain of the tugboat, William G. Williams, which had just passed through the draw with a lighter to cast off his toe line and let the lighter drift back to where the struggling figures could reach it, john F McKeon and john J. Fitzgerald!
She’s assistance got boats and rowed out to wear a diminishing stream of bubbles betrayed the resting place of the car.
Other robots put out, and several fireboats shouted their way through the clustering small craft to aid in the rescue work thomas J. Gammon, one of the few who were found alive, died after being brought to shore.

[13:54] The others were taken to hospitals and probably will recover inside of half an hour. The rescue work was over and the grimmer toil with grappling irons began.
Priests of the Saints, Peter and paul’s Church, the Church of the Holy Rosary, ST Vincent’s and ST Augustine’s hastened to the scene to administer the last rites of the church to rescue victims.

[14:19] As bells rang out from the bridge and tugboat and nearby patrolman used a police call box to call headquarters ambulances, fireboats, police cars and fire trucks began converging on the Summer Street bridge from all over the city,
as did curious Spectators.
Among the first responders was also James Michael Curley in the middle of the first of his four terms as boston mayor and still years away from his term as mass governor and his term in president.
The mayor pushed his way to the edge of the still open draw and gazed down as police searchlights swept the water below.
After those first few moments of frenzied activity. However, a grim realization set in.
There was nobody left alive in the dark waters below.

[15:07] Still, Mayor curley Marshall is forces putting the Fire department in charge of the recovery efforts and calling the commandant of the Navy Yard to send boats and divers.

[15:18] At about 6:45, a police officer with a grappling hook pulled up the first body from the depths, hauling him into a police boat about 80 ft up the channel from the open bridge.
The man’s watch had stopped at 5:26.
Moments later another grappling hook put up another body and then another.
The onlookers all knew that the trolley had been packed with rush hour commuters, but only a handful of survivors and even fewer bodies have been recovered.
By the time the Admiral arrived on the scene, the Admiral was a large working barge used for underwater salvage and demolition.
It had a crane that could hoist 75 tons and when it arrived at the Summer Street Bridge there were about a dozen divers on board getting suited up and ready to go down to car 393.
This was before scuba diving. So these divers would wear heavy metal helmets that were tethered to the surface by an air hose that was supplied by a compressor on the Admiral.
The first diver to go down was 54 year old Peter Foley.
The initial reports about the accident in the November eight globe described how the crowd of Spectators, firefighters, police officers, reporters and mayor curley watched anxiously as fully descended into the depths.

[16:39] Half a dozen searchlights and powerful chemical lights illuminated the surface of the water with the brightness of day the light penetrated far beneath the surface.
Every movement of diver Foley was watched with breathless interest.
The great patch of air bubbles constantly floating to the top moved this way and that now stopped altogether.
It was patent to the anxious watchers that fully was in or near the car,
And then perhaps within the space of 15 minutes there was a jerk at the hand line and his attendants shouted that fully wished to come up,
presently the metal helmet appeared near the ladder and his caretakers feverishly removed his helmet, while the diver clung to the rungs of the ladder.
The mayor standing at the bow of the scott Later shouted across the Foley, How does the car lie just as she would if she were still on the rails, breathlessly, replied the diver.
Were you inside the car? No, came back, the answer, but the car is resting roof up and most of the bodies are huddled together at the front.
Every window on the left hand side is probably broken and the rear end is badly smashed. The front end, though, is just as good as ever.

[17:58] Is there a danger of the bodies falling out If we attempt to raise the car with a derek? Asked Mayor Curley.
Well, all the windows are broken significantly, returned the diver.

[18:11] What is the condition of the car? And reference to placing slings and chains under her and then lifting it.
Well, it can be done. As I say, though the rear trucks are gone and the floor of the car at that end seems to be broken.

[18:27] A little later, Foley told a different reporter from the globe. This was the most terrible sight I’ve ever seen,
when I went down first, I found that every window in the car had been broken and sticking through the empty sashes were the heads, arms and legs of the bodies.
The position of several of the bodies indicated that the passengers had done their best to crawl through the windows.
I circled the entire car on the outside, pushing the bodies into the interior, and then entered through the door and commenced to take them out.
The car was standing on the forward truck when it went overboard, the rear truck remained on the bridge, so that the rear end of the car rested in the mud.

[19:09] There was another diver working from the other end of the car and we worked until we met at the center of the car, taking the bodies out through either door.
It took us about 10 minutes to take out each body care had to be used to avoid entangling the ropes with the bodies of the victims and the ropes in the car.

[19:30] The first body was recovered from the submerged street card about 10 p.m. And then the work continued uninterrupted until one a.m.
Three hours of constant tragedy. As the scale of the disaster slowly became evident even before the total death toll was known.
The next morning’s globe declared that this was the greatest loss of life by accident in boston’s history.

[19:54] The focus now shifted from rescue and recovery to identifying the 46 people who were killed.
Each time divers brought a body to the surface, the searchlights would be shut off briefly while it was lifted out of the water and into a waiting ambulance.
Those ambulances then proceeded to a west end morgue where hundreds or perhaps thousands of family members swarmed outside the doors, desperate for news of their loved ones.

[20:23] On november 9th, the globe carried the stories and obituaries of the victims, including 17 employees of walworth manufacturing, six from J. W. Moore’s machine shop and 10 fishermen from the south boston fish pier.
There were the two friends from Somerville who were going home together when only one managed to swim out of the submerged car.
The man who died in the wreck while his wife was in Forest Hills hospital recovering from an appendectomy.
The two North End Brothers who worked together commuted together and then drowned together.
The man who was on his way to his own birthday party and the Harvard law student from philadelphia.

[21:03] The globe also carried the story of their survivors, desperate search for information.
The North Grove Street morgue was a gruesome place yesterday on both sides of the street were hearses there, black listening sides, reflecting a bit of brightness.
The only bit there on the sidewalks were men, women and Children.
The greater number were outside the morgue door, wives, sisters and daughters, brothers, babies in arms and toddling were in the group.
They wanted to go in and see if their loved ones were there, but when they saw the door opened a few inches, a white robed figure shoving more out than were allowed in.
Some of them were still afraid.

[21:47] Every few minutes a big double door would open and out rolled a hearse with one or two bodies.
Then the people would rush to that place for just a peek in, only to be ordered back meekly. They obeyed as fast as one hearse left, another rolled in, and so the procession continued all day.
Meanwhile, people sifted in. It was pitiful.
They had the dread feeling went outside their faces, those of strong men even bore traces of a long night’s vigil of anxiety.
Then the little door opened and out they came, wilted in mind and body. Some of the women staggered into the arms of friends that told the story of identification.
It was a time when grief made all humanity, kin, Italians and hebrews, irish and americans, white and colored all races felt for each other in the little motley group,
tears were plentiful, but there were no weird shrieks or moans.
It was the sobbing of the heart to hear some of the italian men and women plead and cokes to be allowed in just to be near their dead.
What awakened a sympathetic chord in most anyone, they would have been in the way, if all were allowed in and conditions would have been chaotic.

[23:13] Inside was a gruesome place stretched out were the bodies, some with gashes across the face where the glass cut deeply when the jumbled mass of humanity was hurled to eternity or in the desperate fight to get through the windows,
attendance led relatives to the places where the numbered bodies were stretched waist high, with hands folded, and after identity was made certain questions as to name age residents etcetera were compiled.

[23:43] It was a long arduous task for the medical examiner’s force, where they wanted to be sure that the identification were correct,
when the names were secured, slips were made out, and as soon as an undertaker called for a body, there was not much delay in turning it over to them.
Before noon. Many had been removed as the day wore on and the bodies were taken away, the crowd thinned and faded out and the street resumed its daily appearance.

[24:15] Even as efforts to recover and identify the bodies of the dead, continued the finger pointing began,
according to standard practice at the time timothy shea,
the draw tender in charge of opening the bridge was responsible for verifying that the bridge was clear closing the black metal gates at either end marking them with red lights and only then opening the draw,
Gerald Walsh, the motorman was supposed to have come to a full and complete stop at the tiny stop sign 200 ft before the bridge opening.
Wait for his conductor George McKean to ring the bell twice after verifying that it was safe to proceed and then crossed the bridge at a reasonable rate of speed.

[24:58] The U. P. I. Wire Services initial report said motorman Walsh is held by the police on a charge of manslaughter when he was dragged hysterical and half drowned from the water.
He declared that the arc lights on the bridge were not burning, but this is denied by eyewitnesses.

[25:18] Walsh would go to his grave insisting that the arc light the electric streetlight that should have illuminated the roadway and showed him that the gate was closed and the bridge was open was not lit at the moment of the accident,
and that the red kerosene lamps that should have marked the closed gate. We’re not burning.

[25:37] She gave a contradictory account of the accident and another wire story that ran on the night of the accident, which said the first assistant draw tender timothy J.
Shea, who was in charge of the bridge disputed the statement of the motorman that there was no lights at the draw.
Shea said that the usual red signal lights were on the gate.
He was not sure, he said whether the arc lamp on the bridge was lighted In the November nine edition of the globe.
A story implied that the physical evidence at the scene of the crash pointed in negligence by the trolleys driver who may have been speeding.
As the car started across the bridge, the draw gate, which closes the tracks from the south boston approach and which is composed of iron was badly twisted and bent where it was struck by the car.
This is regarded as proof that the gate was closed when the car struck it.
The large strong wire meshing was torn from its fastenings.
That section of the gate, which is about 15 ft long, was bowed about 18″.
The probabilities are that the car struck the gate so hard that it tore the gate away from the other section which spans the street, thereby furnishing but little resistance to the heavily loaded car.

[26:53] A short section of the wooden capping of the draw where the rails intersect, was also torn away and the last section of the tracks was strewn with broken glass and light ironworks of the car, which were torn away when the car vestibule struck the gate.

[27:09] A week after the crash, a grand jury convened to determine if charges were justified against Jared Walsh or anyone else involved in the accident with the globe reporting,
57 witnesses to the South Boston Streetcar disaster were someone to testify before the grand jury yesterday.
Three of the passengers who were rescued, Miss Lillian frank, Leandro del Piano and forrest Griffin were unable to appear.
Physicians attending them appeared to explain the reason for their absence.
The purpose of the inquiry is to fix responsibility and criminal negligence if there was such for the accident.
District Attorney Pelletier offered the evidence which has been obtained from Police Captain Armstrong and Inspector Dennis E.

[27:57] Some of this was to the effect that the car was going at a rapid rate at the time it crashed through the gate,
It is expected that the inquiry will last at least three days with 100 witnesses in all, testifying,
District Attorney Pelletier intends that the investigation shall be a thorough one and every person that we may know only a single incident bearing upon the disaster will be summoned.

[28:24] Many of the surviving passengers insisted that the trolley was traveling at an unusually high rate of speed when it crashed through the gates, but McKeown testified under oath that Walsh had been operating at a normally cautious speed of about five miles an hour.

[28:40] Wall, should be acquitted of manslaughter.
11 months after the accident, but in the days and weeks after car 3 93 plunged into Fort Point Channel.
His case was litigated in the press on an almost daily basis.

[28:55] And the wee hours of the morning on november 8th after the last bodies have been moved out of the sunken streetcar to the morgue and divers have been able to fashion a sling around the trolley.
The salvage barge, Admiral made preparations to haul it to the surface with, As the next day’s Globe notes a sizable audience of gawkers looking on.

[29:17] Gazing curiously and almost expectantly at the murky waters of Fort Point Channel.
Thousands of morbid Spectators tarried in the vicinity of the Summer Street bridge all day.
Yesterday, the scene of the most appalling streetcar disaster. Boston has ever known, though, nothing pertaining to the accident other than the gaping chasm made by the still open draw remained in evidence.
Still thousands of people throng the streets in the vicinity, as if hoping that the water would give up more dead.
The streetcar which tore through the iron gate with its load of more than 50 souls carrying at least 45 to a watery death was moved yesterday to the South Boston power station of the elevated, following the removal of 44 bodies.

[30:04] The rear trucks of the ill fated car, which with brake shoes tightly jammed against the wheels, was all of the car that remained on the bridge was removed by the elevated soon after the accident.

[30:17] After the investigation was complete, the boston elevated railway pressed car 3 93 back into service.
However, as Eric Moskowitz pointed out in a 100th anniversary globe retrospective quote, few were willing to operate the death car so the car was turned into a record or assisting with derailment disabled cars and track work.

[30:41] First. However, the death car had to be brought to the surface, revealing a fair amount of exculpatory evidence in Walsh’s favor.
As the next day’s Globe pointed out when the giant arm of the ta scott wrecking companies floating Derek Admiral slowly and majestically raised from the depths, the car in which so many human beings lost their lives,
several facts which have been matters for conjecture before, were established.
The cash register in the car indicated 41 fares, the front vestibule from which motorman Gerald Walsh escaped was crushed to pieces when the car plunged through the eight ft iron gate, which barred the entrance to the bridge.
The controller handle was closed, the lever which reverses the car been thrown over, but the sad part was that the current had not been turned on.
It was stated that had the current been applied after the reverse level was thrown over, the car may have been brought to a stop within a few feed.

[31:41] The brake handle twisted, battered and bent, also showed how motorman Wall should frantically endeavor to arrest the car in its flight to destruction.
The front fender was jammed back against the running gear of the forward trucks, which were still held in place by the king Bold.
The windows had all been swept away by the in rush of water as the car was hurled into the channel and glass from the windows was found in the pockets of some of the dead,
hats, clothing and bags littered the inside of the car, and a woman’s gold bracelet was also found.
Whether this bracelet was worn by some unfortunate woman who lost her life in the plunge into the icy water, and whose body was swept away by the ebbing tide, or whether it was a gift that one of the victims was taking to a dear one is another matter for conjecture.

[32:32] As recovery efforts continued. It quickly became clear that the gold bracelet that had been discovered when car 393 was brought to the surface had belonged to the one woman who remained missing,
With the accident, now already forever. Off the front pages.
A story on page three of the November 10 globe explained ceaselessly. The search continues for the bodies of possible additional victims of the Summer Street extension streetcar horror.
It is now regarded as certain that the body of Miss Elsie H. Wood of 29 84 Washington Street in Roxbury.
A stenographer will sooner or later be recovered from the water.

[33:14] After 60 hours of continuous grappling, the harbor police were still unsuccessful last night in their quest for additional bodies,
it is believed that the bodies have been carried away by the swift moving current of the channel under warps and other obstructions, and it may be days perhaps weeks before they will be recovered.
Lieutenant Perry’s Harbor Police, however, are foregoing no effort to recover any additional bodies, regardless of the fact that up to date, their search has been without results.
The search is scheduled to go on indefinitely.
That Miss Wood went down with the ill fated trolley car when it plunged through the open draw was made practically certain yesterday when the gold bracelet found in the car after the accident was positively identified as hers.
Her family and the stenographer at the conduct company where she was employed stated positively that the little band of gold bearing her initials, which medical examiner. McGrath recovered from the car was the property of Miss Wood.

[34:18] The same story in the globe noted that a relic of the ill fated electric car was picked up on Shays Beach orient Heights in East boston late yesterday afternoon,
in a sign one side bearing the words South Station and the other Summer Street extension.
It was picked up near the yacht club by patrolman Edward Sprague.
The side bearing the South Station inscription was badly scraped and marked,
another sign inscribed, Be at the door when nearing your stop was found on the beach near Pleasant Park Yacht Club in Winthrop, yesterday, fore noon by john Nolan, who lives at 24 Boden ST Winthrop.
It’s similar to those found on the inside of boston elevated cars.

[35:04] A story in the same paper two days later noted a false report that the missing woman had been found.
The search continues for the body of Miss Elsie Woods.
A diver worked all day yesterday searching the bottom of the channel, under the pilings of the bridge.
It being supposed that her body might have been caught there, but without result, a rumor was spread yesterday morning that Miss Wood’s body had been found and crowds began to flock to the scene.
The pitiful feature of this report was that it reached the ears of the parents of the missing girl and they, frantic with suspense, hurried to the scene.
Also there they remained for hours early yesterday morning Edward L.
Ryan, a deckhand on the ferryboat. Governor Russell told the Globe reporter that he had seen the body of a young woman floating face up in the slip on the east boston side of the North ferry,
he notified the captain, who in turn notified the harbor police.
A search for the body proved unsuccessful.

[36:10] Ryan’s description of the young woman’s body tallies somewhat with that of Miss Woods.

[36:18] Finally, on November 13, the search was suspended with the next day’s globe reporting.
After five days of continuous searching by divers for the body of Miss Elsie Woods.
The authorities are now inclined to believe that it’s been washed out to sea.

[36:35] They say that comedy is tragedy plus time, but a Mississippi newspaper miscalculated the formula by running this joke about the accident on November 18, while the dead were still being laid to rest here in Boston,
Because a motorman failed to see that the Drawbridge was open, a Boston Trolley car ran into the river, drowning 45 passengers.
This shows how much caution and good eyesight is worth the rush to assign blame for the accident.
That led to manslaughter charges being levied and later dismissed against motorman Walsh eventually led to serious reforms around how street railways in massachusetts would handle drawbridges and other potential hazards.
The idea that there had been some mechanical problem with Car 3 93 like faulty brakes was quickly dismissed with a report in the Electric Railway Journal four days after the accident stating,
The car was a double truck equipment with a 25 ft body and hand brakes.
The seating capacity was 34.
It had longitudinal seats, was of the box type and had been inspected and found in near perfect operating condition less than three hours before the accident.

[37:50] The more official conclusion, as reported to the Public Service Commission by Chief Inspector George W. Bishop concurred with that initial finding as to the condition of Car 3 93 After car 393 had been raised from the channel.
All of its parts were thoroughly examined by assistant inspector Phillip Scott.
The following is an extract from his report concerning the condition of the car.
After a careful inspection of control trucks, sandboxes and brake rigging.
I’m of the opinion that the car was in good working condition after the time of the accident and that all damages to the car and equipment occurred as the car went over the draw.
He also found that this car received a regular inspection on October 31, 1916 that the brakes were adjusted during the afternoon of November seven, and that this accident occurred on the first trip.
Thereafter, I’m unable to learn from any source that the brakes were not in proper working condition.
There is sufficient evidence to show that they were working and that the car skidded.

[38:57] If they couldn’t blame the car, a lot of people were happy to blame the driver.
Certainly motorman Walsh had done something reckless by driving too fast or disregarding the stop sign before the bridge gates.
However, it wasn’t the first time an accident like this had happened and in cases like the trolley that nearly plunged into the mother Brooke in Dedham in 1911, operator error was not found to be the cause.
With the globe reporting at the time june 30th,
a big semi convertible electric of the Old Colony Street Railway Company under charge of William, a Curtis motorman and,
Edward Sprague conductor, which left denim at 402 o’clock this afternoon for Forest Hills, jumped the track at the bridge on Washington Street over mother Brooke,
broke through the fence and stopped hanging nearly half over the brook.
By almost a miracle the car stopped just at the point of safety, for had it gone two ft farther, it would have toppled over into the Brook with probable loss of life.
As it was, there were no bones broken, and so far as could be learned, only two received injuries necessitating much attention.

[40:10] Soon a consensus began to build that while Walsh had made some mistakes, they were the result of system wide faults with the November nine Norwich Bulletin Publishing the opinion that,
there is a greater need for protection against a repetition of such an affair as there is for safeguarding railroad crossings,
at such points, electric cars are required to come to a full stop, and in some instances signals must be raised before the cars are permitted to cross,
and from the revelations which have been made in boston, it would appear to be high time that such a requirement should be insisted upon in connection with drawbridge crossings.
Had the car come to a stop a few feet before the draw was reached, the great loss of life could have been prevented.
A report published in the electric railway journal, four days after the accident states the facts as they were known at the time.
The draw tenders asserted that the lighting conditions were normal at the time of the accident, the gates were closed, one being bent backward out of shape by the passage of the car.
The track was in first class condition, and no trees are located in the district.
The motorman 25 years of age had been in the employee of the company since June of the present year.

[41:26] The wheels of the rear truck, which remained on the street were all found to be worn flat by the break application before the car went over the end of the bridge.

[41:36] If motorman Gerald wall should hit the brake so hard that they wore the steel train wheels flat, that tended to point to a systematic failure rather than just a negligent trolley operator.

[41:49] Something had to change to allow a future operator to have enough time to actually bring the car to a stop when they realized the drawbridge was open.
Chief Inspector George W. Bishop summarized some of these systematic failures in his report to the Public Service Commission,
A stop sign about 17 inches long and 4.5 inches wide, with letters, two by three inches suspended to a span wire 20 ft above the rail is located easterly,
100 75 ft from the gates and 200 ft from the draw opening.
This sign is governed by the following rule number 1 32 page 65 of the rules and regulations for conductors and motor men boston elevated railway companies.
Surface lines 132 Stop before crossing signs.
A safety stops have been established at parkways in certain street crossings and are designated by a sign requiring the car to come to a full stop before proceeding,
B Where such stops have been established, bring the car to a full stop and only proceed upon receiving two bells from the conductor.
If the way is clear, see stop should always be made so that the fender is not over the crosswalk.

[43:07] I’m informed by the management of the company that this sign was installed at this point for the purpose of bringing all cars to a full stop before reaching the drawbridge,
I’m of the opinion that to have served this purpose effectively, a much more conspicuous sign visible both by day and by night should have been located not more than 100 ft from the draw opening.

[43:28] A street arclight is located about 25 ft easterly from the draw opening in the bridge between the tracks and nearly opposite the gates.
This light have kept burning at night is of great assistance to the motorman and determining the position of the draw portion of the bridge.
The motorman in charge of the car claims that this light was not burning at the time of the accident.
His statement is substantiated by a passenger on the car as well as by a person riding in an automobile who arrived immediately after.
There is further evidence that later in the evening the light went off and came on again.

[44:06] I’m informed that the four point channel drawbridges maintained and operated by the city of boston.
I find the gates placed across the street near the scene of the accident to be 25 ft from the opening.
I’m unable to learn of any good reason why they should not have been placed two or three times that distance to give persons using the street earlier warning when approaching danger.
Such warning would have been valuable to the motorman operating car 393 on the evening of this accident,
I find that the red lantern used on the gates at the place of this disaster is attached to the right hand gate, but on the side towards the channel, so that its light is somewhat obscured by the ironwork of the gate.
As one approaches, I’m of the opinion that a better practice would be to provide two lanterns for these gates,
the additional one to be placed over the street railway tracks and both to be hung on the side of the gates toward which persons are approaching rather than on the channel side.

[45:04] This report largely vindicated Walsh while there had been a rush to judgment in the press, starting just hours after the accident, the report of the official investigatory body refuted most of the charges against him.
The stop sign that he had supposedly run through had been placed so that it was nearly invisible.
The street light that others said was on had been flickering off.
The gates were located too close to the draw to do any good and the red warning lamps while lit were placed on the wrong side of the gate for the trolley operator to see them,
and while another motorman may have committed the quirks of the bridge to memory and known to anticipate and compensate for them.
It was Walsh’s first time driving the route, multiplying the tragic effect of these failures.
While it would ultimately be up to the state to decide whether systematic safety reforms were necessary, Mayor Curley wanted to be seen as taking decisive action to protect his constituents.
So he called together a committee to safeguard drawbridges.
Reporting on their first meeting in the November 17 edition, the globe noted that Curley suggested only opening the draw of any bridge during specific nighttime hours when trolleys weren’t running,
but that was instantly dismissed as too harmful to the shipping industry in a working ports city.
They also reported on barry. President Matthew brush as he responded to suggestions from the public.

[46:31] One writer suggested a derailment switch, which President brush said was a most excellent suggestion for getting the car off the bridge and into the water in the quickest possible way,
president brush protested against any scheme that meant a solid barrier.
If you try to stop a heavy motor truck or a big semi convertible car going anywhere from 12 to 30 mph, he said, with a solid barrier such as we have in the Cambridge viaduct, then you’ll have the worst possible kind of an accident.
We are now working out a third rail laden sander pebbles though it caused the car to gradually reduce its speed before it strikes the solid barrier signals are valueless.
Of course, if the human element fails, if a motorman or chauffeur is drunk, asleep or drops dead, then all the lamps and painted gates and siren horns and dynamite in the world will not stop the vehicle.
These signals must be backed up by something that will stop the vehicle when the human agency fails.
He then read a prepared statement which said, the company believes that there should eventually be constructed at all drawbridges, an absolutely positive barrier which will prevent streetcars in all vehicles from reaching the edge of the draw.
But this positive barrier should be of a nature to stop vehicles with as little injury to individuals as possible and should be at a point not less than 75 ft from the edge of the draw.

[48:00] This barrier must be positively so interlocked with the bridge mechanism that it’s an absolute impossibility for the man to operate the draw until the barrier has been positively closed and locked.

[48:13] The company further believes that pending the construction and installation of such positive barriers, there should be immediate steps taken to paint the present gates of all bridges white with black stripes,
that one or possibly two red lights with a large lens should be installed on all gates, directly between the rails and agreed upon distance above the highway, such lights tend to be under the control of the draw tender,
that there should be installed signs 102 100 ft respectively, from the gates indicating slow and stop when the draw is open for the guidance of motor men.
That these signs should not be less than 36 ft long and 12 ft wide.
That there should be immediately installed at all drawbridges, a large gong electrically operated interlocked with the bridge mechanism, so that it will be impossible for the draw tender to open the bridge until he has closed a switch which rings the gong,
the same, to continue ringing throughout the time that the bridge is open as a warning to all vehicles.

[49:16] And his report to the Public Service Commission. Chief Inspector George W.
Bishop weighed four possible courses of action to improve safety at ST card drawbridges in the commonwealth number one, a reduction of the speed of cars approaching drawbridges.
This method leaves the matter to the judgment of the motorman and conductors to estimate the rate of speed at which the car is moving, the results of which often prove unsatisfactory.
Number two, the installation of automatic electric signals.
This method is both practical and feasible, however, to be effectual, they must be connected with the drawbridge in a manner that will require the signals to be set in danger position,
before the draw is opened and remain in that position until the draw is closed.
This requires the approval of municipalities and creates a joint responsibility in the maintenance and operation not altogether desirable.

[50:15] # three, The Installation of Derails. This method is possible, but in my opinion, most undesirable in public ways.
To make a derail effective, it must be connected with the drawbridge and the signals to protect the derail must be placed a proper distance from it.
This combination should be so connected that to open the draw, the signal must first be set at danger when the derail maybe set in position to throw a car from the track after this, the draw may be opened.
A reverse movement of draw derails and signals will clear the track for traffic.
I consider the derailing of a car in a public street dangerous, there is no assurance of the direction the car will move for the results it will produce.
It is just as liable to do one thing as another. It may overturn and they go up on the sidewalk,
and may collide with pedestrians or teams using the street at the same time and in any of these events, something serious is liable to happen.

[51:23] Number four, the installation of positive stops.
This method may have some objections, but it’s free from the complications mentioned in numbers two and three, the management of Street Railways may install positive stops along its lines whenever in its opinion, public safety requires it.
It is always safe to stop a car provided it’s properly protected while at rest.

[51:50] After discussing the details of each of these options, Bishop concluded, I have given numbers 1, 2, 3 and four and other methods careful consideration.
I’m of the opinion that the fourth is preferable and with proper supervision and discipline on the part of the management is reasonably safe.
It may be put into operation at once without great expense.
I therefore recommend that every street railway company in this Commonwealth operating cars or trains over drawbridges on surface lines shall at once install positive stops not more than 100 ft,
nor less than 50 ft from each draw opening to protect traffic going in either direction,
and shall erected each stopping place a stop sign visible, both by day and by night.
The type of sign and rules governing its use to be approved by the commission.
A september 1917 report of the Public Service Commission,
details how they put Bishop’s recommendations into effect, requiring positive stops, which means a device that could automatically stop an oncoming trolley when set to indicate an open bridge, such as a trip stop or a catenary wire, interrupt.
It also includes a requirement to standardize the stop signs that motor men were expected to see and adhere to.
I’m gonna read a pretty large chunk of this report, so stick with me.

[53:14] As the result of the serious accident last november, when a car of the boston elevated railway company plunged through an open draw at the Fort Point channel bridge and after a thorough investigation,
and after a thorough investigation, the commission on december 21st 1916 issued an order to all street railway companies operating over drawbridges in this commonwealth, which contained the following provisions,
ordered that every street railway company in the commonwealth, operating cars or trains over drawbridges on surface lines, shall at once establish positive stops,
at a reasonable braking distance from each drawbridge, subject to the approval of the commission to protect traffic going in either direction,
and shall erect at each stopping place a stop sign visible, both by day and by night.
The type of sign and rules governing its use to be approved by the commission,
that every such company makes seasonable application to the proper municipal authorities for the location or relocation by such authorities at a reasonable breaking distance from each end of the drawbridge,
of suitable gates painted with alternate white and black diagonal stripes, and provided at night with red lights located at reasonable intervals on the upper portion.
Such gates to be properly illuminated and interlocked with the bridge machinery so that the same cannot be operated unless all the gates are closed.

[54:41] That wherever it is, for any reason found impracticable to secure such location or relocation of the drawbridge gates.
Every such company provided the necessary consent is secured from the proper municipal authorities,
shall install and maintain at a reasonable braking distance from the end of each drawbridge,
a smash board signal or similar device so interlocked with the operating mechanism of the draw span is to make it impossible for the draw tender to open the draw before the smash board is in proper position.

[55:10] Immediately after the issuance of this order, the inspection department. The Commission made an examination of the drawbridges in question and recommended 100 ft as a reasonable braking distance at which all cars should be brought to a full stop.
A stop signal was submitted by the companies and approved January 19, 1917, and such signals have been erected at approximately 100 ft from either end of the draw spans.
These signs are three ft long and one ft high, and have the following inscription in large letters drawbridge stop.
They are illuminated at night and can be plainly read at a distance of 200 ft.
The following operating rules were also recommended by the commission and have been adopted by the companies.
Stop signs. A Safety stops have been installed approximately 100 ft from Drawbridge openings and are designated by a sign requiring cars to come to a full stop before proceeding B,
where such stops have been established.
Bring card to a full stop and only proceed upon receiving two bells from the conductor after the conductor and motorman have found the draw to be closed and the way clear.
In addition to the above the boston, elevated railway company has the following rule, Speed of cars must not exceed five mph in entering upon and passing over a drawbridge.

[56:39] The rule of the Base State Street Railway Company is as follows.
At all drawbridges, cars must be brought to a full stop at least 100 ft from the draw and not proceed except by usual bell signal from the conductor, who shall have ascertained for a certainty that the draw is closed and safe to cross.
All drawbridges for their entire length must be crossed at a moderate rate, or such speed as may be fixed by local ordinance, are posted there on.

[57:08] With some slight tweaks and modernizations. A version of these rules are still in place in the commonwealth of massachusetts, with state law requiring clear indication when a drawbridge is open, positive stops and sturdy barriers.
The following appears in the mass. General Laws, Part one title 22. Chapter 1 60 Sections 1 22 1 29.
Every such drawbridge shall be kept closed at all times except while open for the actual passage of vessels.
Every drawbridge shall be equipped with conspicuous day and night signals, which will be displayed at all times in such manner as to clearly indicate to the engineer of an approaching train whether the draw is open or closed,
the railroad corporation may erect at a distance of 500 ft from every drawbridge, or at such other distances may on its application be prescribed by the department,
and on each side there of a substantial barrier,
so constructed and connected with the draw by suitable mechanism that the draw, when in position for the passage of trains cannot be opened or moved until the barriers have been closed across the track in such manner as to be a warning to,
any train which approaches in either direction.

[58:24] If a drawbridge is not furnished with such barriers and in all cases if by reason of darkness or otherwise, the barriers or signals connected with a drawbridge are not visible from the engine of an approaching passenger train,
the engineer of such train shall bring it to a full stop at a distance of not less than 300 nor more than 800 ft from the drawbridge, and before proceeding shall positively ascertain that the draw is properly closed for the passage of trains.

[58:54] With 46 people killed the trolley crash on November 7, 1916 was the most deadly disaster that Boston had ever seen.
The world wars and global pandemics would kill more Bostonians.
This was the worst single event to hit the city for over a quarter century Until another deadly November night in 1942, when a nightclub called the Coconut Grove caught fire.

[59:20] Eric Moskowitz 100 year retrospective describes how the accident was used as a benchmark for years.
The disaster remained a grim measuring stick for boston mentioned immediately when a north end storage tank burst in 1919, killing 21 in a fast moving wave of molasses,
A chinatown speakeasy collapsed in 1925 killing 43,
or a streetcar jumped the tracks in Roxbury in 1939 killing six,
That an overcrowded nightclub called Coconut Grove ignited in 1942, trapping and killing a staggering 492 and the summer street disaster receded into the mist.
Elsie Wood’s whose gold bracelet was found in car 393 when it was raised to the surface finally washed up six months after the accident,
the May 24th 1917, globe noted the young woman’s body recovered from the harbor waters near the Congress Street bridge early yesterday was last evening identified at the North Grove street mortuary as that of Miss Elsie H.
Woods of 29 84 Washington Street, a victim of the Summer Street Bridge car horror. Last november, Miss Elsie Woods was the last victim to be laid to rest.

[1:00:42] To learn more about the summer street bridge disaster. Check out this week’s show notes at hub history dot com slash 261.
I’ll have photos of the crowd gawking at the open drawbridge and of car 3 93 as it was raised from the depths,
as well as a map of the boston elevated railways, 1916 root system and a diagram showing the contours of the bottom of four point channel,
as well as two helpful diagrams from the boston globe that are now in the public domain showing how the accident unfolded.
I’ll link to the news stories from the boston globe, new york papers and national wire Services that I quoted from as well as the 100 year retrospective on the accident by eric Moskowitz that helped inspire this episode.
I’ll also link to the reports of the Public Service commission about the investigation of the crash and resulting reforms as well as our current state laws regarding drawbridges.
If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email podcast at hub history dot com.
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Music

Jake:
[1:02:10] That’s all for now. Stay safe out there listeners.