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The bridge was in the midst of opening to allow a ship to pass; the inbound roadway was already slid to its furthest position. Walsh failed to obey a small stop sign located at
Melcher Street, though he slowed for a boarding passenger. Walsh noticed the open bridge too late to stop; the wheels locked
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Divers from the Hugh Nawn company began work at 9 pm; bodies were removed from the wreckage from 10 pm to 12:40 am. Forty-five bodies were discovered in the channel and the sunken streetcar; the forty-sixth victim did not wash ashore until May 1917. Boston newspapers, each vying for the best story,
403:
claimed the required red lantern had been hung on the gate to warn streetcars of the open bridge, but Walsh claimed he saw no such lantern. Some questioned how the glass lantern had survived the impact of the trolley with the gates, which broke a 4-inch (100 mm) iron post in two; they alleged
355:
George McKeon, but both were familiar with the area. Car #393 was a typical 1900-built 25-foot (7.6 m) streetcar, a workhorse of the BERy fleet of the day. As it approached the Summer Street Bridge, it was full with around sixty passengers on board.
422:
Car #393 was returned to service but most operators refused to run it; it was converted to a work car and later scrapped. The streetcar route was converted to bus on June 20, 1953. After several reroutings between 1968 and 2005, the modern
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Boston's Public
Service Commission ruled the accident to be the fault of Walsh for failing to stop at the posted sign, but noted that such signs were hard to notice and that many drawbridges lacked them entirely. Walsh went on trial for
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and the streetcar crashed through a set of metal gates and into the channel. Heavy with passengers, it sank quickly into the cold waters of the channel, some 30 feet (9.1 m) deep.
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that the bridge tenders may have actually hung it after the accident. Walsh was declared not guilty, but he never ran a streetcar again and died around 1932 at age 41. McKeon died in
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has two sliding sections of roadway – one for inbound lanes, one for outbound – that can move away from the bridge at a 45-degree angle to create a channel for ships to pass.
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Gerald Walsh at the controls. The car was an extra, operated to fill a gap between scheduled service. Walsh had not worked the City Point route before, nor had the
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300:; however, that line was never constructed. Instead, South Boston was served by a network of surface streetcar lines that connected to the rapid transit lines at
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264:, United States. Forty-six passengers were killed, making it the deadliest disaster in Boston's history until surpassed by the
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The disaster was the first major accident involving the BERy. It remained the worst in Boston for many years; the more famous
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reported body counts as high as 60. The streetcar was removed from the channel at 3:30 am by a crane on the wrecking
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508:"STREET CAR PLUNGE 46 DROWNED: 'WORST TRAGEDY IN THE HISTORY OF THE CITY' (And the one Boston completely forgot)"
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and passing pedestrians. Forty-six passengers drowned, many still inside the crowded streetcar.
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An MBTA route 7 bus – the descendant of the streetcar route run in 1916 – on the bridge in 2017
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in South Boston. It ran along Summer Street for most of its length, crossing the 1899-built
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Walsh, McKeon, and around fifteen passengers managed to escape the car and were rescued by
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Summer Street Bridge in 2016, showing the tracks that the retractable sections slid on
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in 1919 had less than half the fatalities. It was only surpassed in 1942, when the
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At 5:13 pm on
November 7, 1916, Car #393 began an inbound run from City Point with
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in
October 1917, with witnesses differing on many aspects of the accident. The
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bus follows largely the same route as the streetcar involved in the disaster.
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served many industrial workers who worked along East First Street and
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568:. November 11, 1916. p. 7 – via Google Newspapers.
581:"Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA district 1964–2016"
550:(20): 1034. November 11, 1916 – via Internet Archive.
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St. Croix, New
Brunswick, Canada / Vanceboro, Maine, US
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The streetcar being raised from the river the next day
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292:lines in Boston. Original plans had called for an
1541:Railway accidents and incidents in Massachusetts
599:Boston Globe coverage on the 100th anniversary:
1466:FIU Sweetwater UniversityCity pedestrian bridge
1341:Hyatt Regency walkway in Kansas City, Missouri
1044:
629:
8:
458:Cheney, Frank; Sammarco, Anthony M. (2000).
1209:Rail bridge near Huntington, West Virginia
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24:
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1424:I-40 bridge near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma
1203:Rail bridge in Atlantic City, New Jersey
579:Belcher, Jonathan (September 30, 2016).
244:loaded with passengers ran off the open
1395:Lowe's Motor Speedway pedestrian bridge
1197:Rail bridge near Eden Station, Colorado
1147:Rail bridge near Chester, Massachusetts
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1454:I-5 bridge in Mount Vernon, Washington
1245:Rail bridge near Meadow Acres, Wyoming
1141:Rail bridge in Orange County, Virginia
1099:Rail bridge near Meridian, Mississippi
331:over Fort Point Channel to cross into
1516:Bridge disasters in the United States
1275:Rail bridge in Woodbridge, New Jersey
1135:Rail bridge near Chatsworth, Illinois
1093:Rail bridge near St. Joseph, Missouri
682:Rogers Pass, British Columbia, Canada
538:"Fatal Drawbridge Accident At Boston"
532:
530:
7:
1215:Saint Croix–Vanceboro Railway Bridge
700:Aisgill summit, Westmorland, England
506:Moskowitz, Eric (October 29, 1916).
1561:1916 disasters in the United States
1075:Rail bridge in Norwalk, Connecticut
763:Guyandotte River, West Virginia, US
798:Exeter, New South Wales, Australia
288:(BERy) operated all streetcar and
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1311:Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge
1185:Rail bridge in Danville, Virginia
1105:Rail bridge near Angola, New York
915:Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, France
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1365:Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge
1287:Rail bridge in Meldrim, Georgia
1159:Enfield–Suffield Covered Bridge
781:Ais Gill, Westmoreland, England
938:Little Salkeld, United Kingdom
644:Railway accidents in the 1910s
1:
1531:Streetcars in the Boston area
1484:I-95 overpass in Philadelphia
107:Show map of the United States
19:Summer Street Bridge disaster
921:Shepherdsville, Kentucky, US
562:"Trolley Car Victims Buried"
1442:Bartonsville Covered Bridge
1436:I-35W bridge in Minneapolis
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1317:West Spokane Street Bridge
851:St Bedes Junction, England
676:Wellington, Washington, US
419:killed nearly 500 people.
125:November 7, 1916
1536:Railway accidents in 1916
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1166:
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868:Boston, Massachusetts, US
82:Show map of Massachusetts
35:
23:
1490:Francis Scott Key Bridge
1383:Newhall Pass interchange
1299:Newhall Pass interchange
746:Ditton Junction, England
543:Electric Railway Journal
440:List of bridge disasters
413:Boston Molasses Disaster
182:42.351028°N 71.0517833°W
1418:Queen Isabella Causeway
1389:Queen Isabella Causeway
1371:Claiborne Avenue Bridge
1281:CRRNJ Newark Bay Bridge
950:Nashville, Tennessee US
903:Houten, the Netherlands
723:Indianola, Nebraska, US
460:When Boston Rode The El
286:Boston Elevated Railway
240:On November 7, 1916, a
220:Boston Elevated Railway
1460:I-85 bridge in Atlanta
1377:Big Bayou Canot Bridge
1353:Schoharie Creek Bridge
1335:Sunshine Skyway Bridge
1269:Chesapeake City Bridge
1221:Division Street Bridge
968:Brooklyn, New York, US
839:Quintinshill, Scotland
694:Novato, California, US
688:Spring Creek, Iowa, US
670:Nairn, Ontario, Canada
380:
294:elevated rapid transit
281:
210:City Point to Downtown
187:42.351028; -71.0517833
1521:1916 in Massachusetts
1448:Eggner's Ferry Bridge
1329:Bedell Covered Bridge
1263:Tacoma Narrows Bridge
1153:Madison Street Bridge
740:Corning, New York, US
378:
279:
1556:November 1916 events
1305:Sidney Lanier Bridge
1227:Summer Street Bridge
1062:in the United States
944:Hammond, Indiana, US
874:Herceghalom, Hungary
804:Carrbridge, Scotland
329:Summer Street Bridge
246:Summer Street Bridge
1566:Disasters in Boston
1347:Mianus River Bridge
1239:Allen Street Bridge
1081:Clark Street Bridge
891:Edinburgh, Scotland
827:Guadalajara, Mexico
417:Cocoanut Grove fire
266:Cocoanut Grove fire
178: /
1472:Fern Hollow Bridge
985:Vigerslev, Denmark
956:Weesp, Netherlands
717:Hopkinstown, Wales
464:Arcadia Publishing
381:
337:retractable bridge
296:loop line through
282:
254:Fort Point Channel
57:Show map of Boston
1503:
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1430:Four Bears Bridge
1323:Hood Canal Bridge
1233:Greenfield Bridge
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775:Bramming, Denmark
769:Chumhill, England
650:Location and date
321:Washington Street
238:
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134:Around 5:25 p.m.
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1546:Seaport District
1359:Miamitown Bridge
1251:Honeymoon Bridge
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1123:Des Moines River
1117:Ashtabula Bridge
1087:Gasconade Bridge
1060:Bridge disasters
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466:. p. 13.
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1411:21st century
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1178:20th century
1111:Dixon Bridge
1068:19th century
987:(1 November)
970:(1 November)
962:Getå, Sweden
940:(19 January)
899:(13 January)
876:(1 December)
870:(7 November)
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835:(2 February)
829:(22 January)
719:(23 January)
672:(21 January)
586:. NETransit.
574:
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517:. Retrieved
513:Boston Globe
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410:
397:manslaughter
393:
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298:South Boston
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1401:Hoan Bridge
964:(1 October)
893:(3 January)
847:(14 August)
823:(1 January)
765:(1 January)
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519:November 7,
185: /
173:71°3′6.42″W
170:42°21′3.7″N
161:Coordinates
1510:Categories
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446:References
317:City Point
272:Background
250:drawbridge
226:Statistics
129:1916-11-07
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371:Aftermath
353:conductor
268:in 1942.
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434:See also
365:tugboats
349:motorman
343:Incident
306:Broadway
216:Operator
147:Location
601:article
428:route 7
389:Admiral
386:lighter
252:, into
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127: (
117:Details
1492:(2024)
1486:(2023)
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1468:(2018)
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1456:(2013)
1450:(2012)
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1343:(1981)
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1247:(1923)
1241:(1923)
1235:(1921)
1229:(1916)
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1089:(1855)
1083:(1853)
1077:(1853)
605:images
470:
335:. The
308:, and
258:Boston
231:Deaths
151:Boston
1020:1920s
1007:1900s
584:(PDF)
140:UTC-4
978:1919
931:1918
884:1917
861:1916
814:1915
791:1914
756:1913
733:1912
710:1911
657:1910
521:2016
468:ISBN
425:MBTA
248:, a
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319:to
136:EDT
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