150 Years Later, Dixon Bridge Tragedy Among Nation's Worst

Newsmax ^ | 4/30/23 | staff

[CFW]

Gertie Wadsworth was in the arms of her grandmother that bright day when sunshine dissolved distasteful memories of a long, brutal winter. Christan Goble held the 3 1/2-year-old girl in a crowd of more than 200 on the bridge over the Rock River. After a procession down Galena Avenue from the Baptist Church on May 4, 1873, the Rev. J.H. Pratt began baptizing parishioners in the brisk, rapid current.

Then, with a sharp crack and a crescendo of shrieking spectators loaded on the pedestrian walkway in front of towering trusses, the 4-year-old bridge twisted, splintered and rolled over. Forty-six people perished, many immured by the unrelenting gridiron just below the water's surface. Along with 56 injuries, the Truesdell bridge tragedy, 150 years ago Thursday, remains the worst vehicular-bridge disaster in American history.

“It's not as though the bridge just collapsed and went straight down,” says Tom Wadsworth, 70, a retired magazine editor and expert on the calamity. "It turns over on top of these people. ... As the (Chicago) Tribune said, the truss ‘fell over with the weight and imprisoned the doomed in an iron cage with which they sunk and from which there was no escape.’”

[CFW]

I remember discussions of this when I was younger, but haven't heard it mentioned in some years. When my father and uncles were discussing a local building project, one of them would say something such as "I hope they remember the Dixon disaster". For a long time I didn't understand what they were talking about, but later learned they were referring to the collapse of this bridge.

[GingisK]

I never stand with a large crowd on a deck, bridge, or balcony. Mostly, I avoid being with globs of people. I have trust issues.

[BenLurkin]

Learned a new word — “immured”

Ghastly.

[CFW]

“Mostly, I avoid being with globs of people. I have trust issues.”

I’m the same. I prefer small groups of people I know and trust. And even then, I always make note of the exits and stay in close proximity to a route for escape.

[Carriage Hill]

No you don’t; I do the same thing.
We’re smart.

[BenLurkin]

Before:

[BenLurkin]

After:

[PghBaldy]

Horrific deaths and injuries, though first I heard of this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixon_Bridge_Disaster

[GingisK]

Maybe God wasn’t happy with that church.

[one guy in new jersey]

Ditto.

From Merriam Webster online:

Did you know? Like mural, immure comes from murus, a Latin noun that means “wall.”

Those poor people were “walled in”.

One shade of meaning of “immured” is: “entombed”. Yikes.

[one guy in new jersey]

“Be polite, be courteous, show professionalism, and have a plan to kill everyone in the room.” Gen. James Mattis

[one guy in new jersey]

Elsewhere quoted:

“In his well-regarded book Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, author Thomas E. Ricks quotes Army Maj. Gen. Robert Scales describing Mattis as “one of the most urbane and polished men I have known,” saying Mattis was capable of quoting “Homer as well as Sun Tzu.” Sun Tzu, of course, wrote the The Art of War. Ricks also revealed that Mattis never deploys without a copy of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet,” was one of the rules General Mattis gave to his Marines in Iraq. “There are some assholes in the world that just need to be shot, “Mattis told his troops. “There are hunters and there are victims,” Mattis said. “By your discipline, cunning, obedience and alertness, you will decide if you are a hunter or a victim.””

https://2paragraphs.com/2016/12/general-james-mattis-have-a-plan-to-kill-everybody-you-meet/

[telescope115]

I live about 50 miles North of there, and I have not heard of this. Maybe because it happened so long ago.
Ronald Reagan grew up near there.

[mabarker1]

No, Squantos.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Bookmark

[minnesota_bound]

I always blame the Baptists myself.... !
_________________________________________

Placing blame
Immediately after the collapse, citizens and city officials began placing blame on various entities. Those blamed included L. E. Truesdell, the Dixon City Council, Henry Strong (the bridge tender), and the Baptists. While some of these were quickly dismissed, the case against L. E. Truesdell’s bridge design sustained the test of time and scrutiny.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixon_Bridge_Disaster

L. E. Truesdell wrote: “It is nearly 18 years since I began building iron bridges, and the Elgin and Dixon bridges are the only ones that have fallen, and no loss of life except at Dixon. Can as much be said of any other plan?”