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DIXON, Ill. (AP) — Gertie Wadsworth was in the arms of her grandmother that bright day when sunshine dissolved distasteful memories of a long, brutal ...
It's been 150 years since a bridge in Dixon, Illinois, collapsed
It's been 150 years since a bridge in Dixon, Illinois, collapsed. It remains the worst vehicular-bridge disaster in American history. The Truesdell bridge over the Rock River opened in 1869. It was the first iron bridge in the city. On May 4, 1873, a crowd of more than 200 gathered on the bridge to watch a baptism when it toppled over, trapping dozens of victims just inches below the river's surface. The disaster claimed 46 lives and injured another 56. Tom Wadsworth has studied the disaster. His great-grandmother, Gertie Wadsworth, was a toddler in her grandmother's arms on the...
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Newspapers post-disaster dubbed Dixon’s span “The Truesdell Trap” and “The Patent Wholesale Drowning Machine.” It was shocking how the ironwork had slammed atop victims like a gate.
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Newspapers post-disaster dubbed Dixon’s span “The Truesdell Trap” and “The Patent Wholesale Drowning Machine.” It was shocking how the ironwork had slammed atop victims like a gate.