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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 bridge that day and survived. He has helped organize a memorial that will be dedicated at the river on Sunday. ....
DIXON, Ill. (AP) 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 […] ....
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. ....