Show adventurers club Z 4 terror of brooklyn bridge by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter heard stories of panics in halls and theaters of panics yon YOUVE on sinking ships and in crowded circus tents but its a good idea to remember that not all panics happen in in enclosed spaces heres here s one that happened out in the open an eye eyewitness witness account of 0 the he historic panic of brooklyn bridge told by a newspaper man of the day timothy T oconnell of elmhurst L I 1 maybe some of you remember that panic maybe some of you were caught in n it 1 I it was on decoration day 1883 that brooklyn se wT oconnell just a cub bridge was thrown open to the public tim was reporter then and he felt pretty proud when his paper sent him to cover the ceremony but I 1 might not have been so proud he says or so keen on going if id known what was going to happen it was a happy chattering throng things went smoothly enough for a time tim says the crowd was the usual mob of sightseers drawn from all walks of life there were doctors and laborers butch butchers ets and bakers parents with their children clerks with their sweethearts and old folks who gazed in awe at the huge trellises and networks of great twiste dwire cables they thronged thron ged the big new bridge chattering and laughing it was an orderly leisurely crowd tim says until suddenly some idiot yelled THE BRIDGE IS FALLING DOWN such words in a place like that are nothing short of verbal murder the cry was taken up by others there were shouts of f fire re and an ominous buzzing of rumors through the crowd fa faces ces turned white there was a moment when a stupor seemed to settle over the walks jammed with pedestrians THEN SUDDENLY CAME pandemonium CHAOS men alen in panic says say tim are disposed to believe anything they hear th the e alarms struck terror into thousands of hearts there followed a scene scarcely to be conceived or believed by anyone who did not witness it wild tumult howling and shouting the shrieks of women some of them with small children in their arms who were being jostled knocked down and trampled by others in their wild haste to reach the end of the bridge turned into a brutal selfish mob in the mad rush to save themselves people stripped themselves of all their burdens handbags canes umbrellas were thrown aside they got under foot making it all the more difficult for those in the J I 1 Z 5 a panic stricken throng on the bridge rear to advance the crowd surged and fought and trampled A father seized his baby and lifted it from its carriage just in in the nick of time ten seconds later the carriage was demolished no pen could describe all the horror and brutality of that scene and tim oconnell claim that his old typewriter can elther either but like a good reporter he caught the spirit of terror as it stalked stalked a across c ross that bridge and sent it to me in whole pages of fine moving d description the panic had started near the manhattan end of the bridge there a deadlock of tightly packed humanity was jamming the exit before two minutes had passed the dread maniacal fear had spread to the center of the span and more thousands of people rushed toward the manhattan side doubling the congestion and adding to the havoc the crowd now as one pulsing terror stricken sea of heads milling fighting screaming stalwart men trampled over prostrate bodies ONE GIANT OP OF A MAN GONE completely BERSERK PLUNGED THROUGH THE struggling MASS KNOCKING OVER WOMEN AN AND D CHILDREN As far as tim could see there was nothing bu but t bedlam and shrieking and scuffling of feet to save himself from being ground under them tim started to climb a trellis of wire cable others followed his lead and tim was forced to climb clim b higher eigher to enable them to get a foothold clinging there with bruised hands he looked down on the seer scene e and then like a good reporter HE STARTED TO TAKE N OTES NOTES tough job for an ambitious reporter his s notebook had tallen fallen from his rocket pocket so he tore off his cuff a stiff three inch one of the kind worn at that period he balance it against the swaying cable hold it and write with his one free hand the cuff slipped away and fell into the river he tore out the stiff bosom of 01 his from his bruised fingers shirt and tried that that too slipped A cloud of black smoke from a river craft rose from below and enveloped en v eloped him m in its suffocating folds he was getting dizzy and fixed feed his eye on the horizon to steady himself spanning his head but he was spinning hung on until the bridge Ss cleared kayu a bit and a rescue its squad aqua squa forced way through the ivr crowd assuring people that there the matter t that they was nothing were victims of a false alarm tim and his companions Pan ions on the trellis were assisted to the th down roadway tim rescued Y their hands torn and 1 l bleeding on the way down th a kitten en that w was mewing him m into nto the improvised i pitifully carried it with to t a nearby saloon ambulance the ambulance took them where they were given an alcoholic restora tive and the kitten got a ah dish of milk some months later tim 1 UP in a chair outside that says I saw that same kitten curled same saloon in her closed dr esy but there was no recognition eyes would have been floating in gratitude for you but for rae it a watery grave Is 0 |