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| "L" Train
Climbs a Hill.
Metropolitan Motor Runs Up a Rising "Lift" Span. Accident at Van Buren Street Causes a Panic Among the Passengers, Who Fear Coaches Will Plunge Into river -- Headway is Lost on Steep Incline and Platforms are Crushed -- Employee Said to Have Ignored Danger Signal. Source: Chicago Daily Tribune, 16 May 1902, pg. 1. An acrobatically inclined train on the Logan Square branch of the Metropolitan "L" tried to climb up the lift bridge at Van Buren street at 5:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon ahe structure was being raised to allow a boat to pass. The train rose some distance to the great alarm of the hundreds or more pasengers, then lost headway and slid back, wrecking two platforms. As the shaken and terrified people sprang to their feet the motor car jumped the track and came to a stop on the ties with a crash that threw several passengers to the floor. Then the car balked, and traffic on the elevated road and in the river was tied up for a half hour, while a wrecking crew struggled to replace the coach on the rails. Had the car been out-bound and crowded the accident might have resulted in a fatal panic and persons on the smashed platforms hardly could have escaped injury. The passengers rushed for the doors, but the guards were able to keep them on the cars till headway was lost. Then the terrified ones cautiously counted the ties to the Canal street station and got to solid earth as quickly as they could. That the train did not plunge from the structure was a surprise to spectators and passengers alike. Rushed on Opening Bridge. The innocent cause of the train's unseemly behavior (it was the first accident of the kind in Chicago) was the lumber barge F. W. Fletcher. The Fletcher was bound up the South Branch shortly before 6 o'clock and whistled for the Metropolitan bridge to open. Captain Bennett says the signals were set for the big span to rise when he passed Adams street. As the bridge halves with a preliminary shudder rose in the air an east-bound trian whirled into view. Seeing the opening draw ahead the motorman, J. Doyle, reversed and tried in vain to check his train. At the same time Captain Bennett signaled full speed astern and saved his boat from crashing into the bridge span, whose rise was checked when the train approached. To him it seemed as if the four cars must plunge into the river, and he ordered his crew to stand by to rescue the passengers. But after what seemed an hour the trian came to a stop and then rolled back out of danger. Blames the Motorman. "Although there has not been time for the company to hold an investigation, it would appear that the motorman ran by the danger signal, which showed that the bridge was open," said Frank M. Brinckerhoff, a company engineer, last evening. "All reports we have received show that the signals were working properly and were set at the time. This is the first accident of this kind we have ever had. We were able to close the south half of the bridge at once, and handled the loop trains on the two tracks until the wreck had been cleared away. The new stub service we had installed at Canal street helped us out greatly and enabled us to take care of that part of the business without delay." |
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Page authored: 14
April 2002 -
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