Chapter XXVII: Testimony of Witnesses

The following is the testimony of some of the more important witnesses before the Coroner’s Jury. It is taken from the short hand report made at the time, but abridged as much as possible.

MR. A. L. ROGERS TESTIFIES:

I was foreman of the raising of the bridge; superintended the
screwing of nuts to bring the strain upon the vertical rods; Amasa
Stone examined it and said my part of the work was well done; after
knocking out the blocks, the bridge settled six inches; it settled
gradually as we put in thinner blocks and took them out to put in
still thinner ones; it was not in use during this time; Mr. Stone
then decided to reconstruct the bridge, by changing the position
of certain irons and braces; the bridge was constructed after this
design, with one exception; the struts running from the bottom cord
to the middle of the first pair of braces were not put in till
afterward; a change was made in the arrangement of the upper cords,
which were shortened; after these changes Mr. Stone examined it
without taking out the blocks, and pronounced it good; the false
work remained in position from October, 1865, to November, 1866.

Cross-examined--When the bridge was first put up, it settled, and
I made the remark that if it kept on, it would go into the creek;
perhaps I told it to half a dozen others; said it was not Mr.
Collins’ bridge, but Mr. Stone’s; said the bridge had cost a great
deal of money, but don’t recollect saying it would cost the company
a great deal more; was discouraged because the bridge acted so, and
that I couldn’t see how to remedy it; remember all this was before
the modifications were made; Mr. Congdon was with Mr. Stone when
the bridge was examined; the plan of changing the braces was then
adopted.

Mr. Albert Congdon, testified as follows: At the time of the
construction of this bridge I was employed by the Lake Shore Road
as master machinist; knew something about the construction of this
bridge, as I had charge of the work in making the bridge; found a
lack of material to fill the place for which it was designed; told
Mr. Thompson about it, and he wanted to know if he had better let
Mr. Stone know it; told him he had better; a short time afterward
I was told to take the plans and finish the construction of the
bridge as I thought it should be done; do not know how far the work
had progressed at the time I assumed control; the braces were not
marked so as to designate the position they were to occupy; never
calculated the strength of the tension of compression members; did
not say much to Mr. Tomlinson or any other man about the bridge,
as I did not consider myself a competent bridge man; from the time
of Mr. Tomlinson leaving, I had the management of constructing the
bridge; Mr. Rogers told me that Mr. Stone had given him orders to
erect it, but he did not know how; I asked him why he did not go
and tell Mr. Stone so, and he said that he did not like to; I then
told him as much as I knew.

Testimony of the man who drew the plans for the Ashtabula bridge.

Joseph Tomlinson is sworn. Resides in Ottawa, Ont. Is General
Superintendent of Lighthouses in the employ of the Canadian
Government. Was engaged in bridge-building from 1840 to 1870. He
made the drawings for the iron Howe truss bridge over Ashtabula
Creek--the one which had lately fallen. He did this under
instructions from Mr. Stone. He never approved of a wrought-iron
Howe truss over a large span. It makes an unnecessarily heavy
bridge, and all the strain accumulates at the end braces.
Notwithstanding its weight, it would have been a strong, durable
bridge had the main braces been sufficiently strong. They were
not made as large as designed, and it was his intention that they
should be strengthened, but his connection with the Company was
severed on account of a difference that arose between himself and
Mr. Stone concerning the bridge.

Mr. A. Gottlieb, engineer of the Keystone Bridge Company, at Pittsburg, Pa., was next called. He testified as follows:

When the wrecked bridge was constructed, the building of iron truss
bridges was in its childhood, compared with the progress made since
that time.

The first objectionable point in the bridge, therefore, was the
unnecessarily great dead weight; the second, the lack of sufficient
section in the upper cord; also the manner in which the beams
forming said cord were bound together, which brought much more
strain on some of them than on others.

I have made a careful examination of the wrecked bridge as it
lay at the bottom of the river, and also of the map of the bridge
as made by Mr. Tomlinson, and I think that I have obtained a very
good idea of the construction of the wrecked bridge. I do not think
that the Howe truss pattern is very well adapted to a heavy iron
bridge. During my examination I did not see anything in the plan
or construction of the bridge that would lead me to think that the
extremes of heat or cold would injure it. I never knew of any other
wrought iron bridge constructed on the Howe truss pattern.

Before the committee appointed by the Legislature of Ohio, the following testimony was also given by Mr. Amasa Stone, the former President of the Road:

Mr. Stone swore that he designed the bridge, but only superintended
the drawing of the plan, while the details of construction were
given into the hands of Mr. Albert Congdon, who was supervised by
Mr. Joseph Tomlinson.

I have never constructed any other Howe truss bridge with
wrought-iron braces, and know of no other anywhere in the country.
When Mr. Rogers made the mistake of putting in the braces it was
not negligence in permitting him to continue the superintendence
of the erection of the bridge, for there was no other particular
in which he could have made a mistake. It was not even unwise to
permit him to continue. When the bridge was changed in correcting
the mistake there were no more braces inserted.

Chas. Collins, the engineer of the road, testified before the same committee, as follows:

About the time the bridge was built, my duties were so heavy I
was relieved from looking after the bridge. I never mentioned
to any one that the bridge was not mine and that I did not want
anything to do with it, since it was placed under the charge of a
bridge-man; I thought it out of place for me to say anything about
it. I never knew of another bridge being built of wrought iron on
this plan. I think the bridge was rather an experiment.