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BRIDGE DISASTERS IN AMERICA

  _The Cause and the Remedy_

  BY

  GEORGE L. VOSE

  AUTHOR OF "MANUAL FOR RAILROAD ENGINEERS AND ENGINEERING
  STUDENTS," "LIFE AND WORKS OF GEORGE W. WHISTLER,
  CIVIL ENGINEER," ETC.

  _"ETERNAL VIGILANCE IS THE PRICE OF LIBERTY"_

  BOSTON
  LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS
  10 MILK STREET
  NEXT OLD SOUTH MEETING HOUSE
  1887




NOTE.


The substance of the following pages appeared originally in "The
Railroad Gazette." It was afterwards reproduced in pamphlet form, and
has since been several times delivered as an address to various
bodies, the last occasion being before the Legislature of
Massachusetts, 1887. It is now re-published, with some new matter
added, in the hope that the public attention may be called to a
subject which has so important a bearing upon the public safety.


  COPYRIGHT, 1887,
  BY LEE AND SHEPARD.

  _All rights reserved._




BRIDGE DISASTERS IN AMERICA.


Nearly all of the disasters which occur from the breaking down of
bridges are caused by defects which would be easily detected by an
efficient system of inspection. Not less than forty bridges fall in
the United States every year. No system of public inspection or
control at present existing has been able to detect in advance the
defects in these structures, or to prevent the disasters. After a
defective bridge falls, it is in nearly every case easy to see why it
did so. It would be just about as easy, in most cases, to tell in
advance that such a structure would fall if it ever happened to be
heavily loaded. Hundreds of bridges are to-day standing in this
country simply because they never happen to have received the load
which is at any time liable to come upon them.

A few years ago an iron highway bridge at Dixon, Ill., fell, while a
crowd was upon it, and killed sixty persons. The briefest inspection
of that bridge by any competent engineer would have been sure to
condemn it. A few years later the Ashtabula bridge upon the Lake
Shore Railroad broke down under an express train, and killed over
eighty passengers. The report of the committee of the Ohio
Legislature appointed to investigate that disaster concluded, first,
that the bridge went down under an ordinary load by reason of
defects in its original construction; and, secondly, that the defects
in the original construction of the bridge could have been discovered
at any time after its erection by careful examination. Hardly had the
public recovered from the shock of this terrible disaster when the
Tariffville calamity added its list of dead and wounded to the long
roll already charged to the ignorance and recklessness which
characterize so much of the management of the public works in this
country.

There are many bridges now in use upon our railroads in no way better
than those at Ashtabula and Tariffville, and which await only the
right combination of circumstances to tumble down. There are, by the
laws of chance, just so many persons who are going to be killed on
those bridges. There are hundreds of highway bridges now in daily
use which are in no way safer than the bridge at Dixon was, and which
would certainly be condemned by five minutes of competent and honest
inspection. More than that, many of them have already been condemned
as unfit for public use, but yet are allowed to remain, and invite
the disaster which is sure to come. Can nothing be done to prevent
this reckless and wicked waste of human life? Can we not have some
system of public control of public works which shall secure the
public safety? The answer to this question will be, Not until the
public is a good deal more enlightened upon these matters than it is
now.

It has been very correctly remarked, that, in order to bring a
disaster to the public notice, it must be emphasized by loss of
life. The Ashtabula bridge fell, and killed over eighty persons; and
a storm of indignation swept over the country, from one end to the
other. No language was severe enough to apply to the managers of the
Lake Shore Railroad; but if that very bridge had fallen under a
freight-train, and no one had been injured, the occurrence would have