The locomotive, W. B. Culver, out of Glen's Falls, New York, pulling a baggage and passenger car, crashed through the wooden bridge at the canal feeder late on the afternoon of October 22nd, 1883. The cars fell into the stream below, in six feet of water. The engine snapped the coupling and rode safely away. The wreck of the two cars was total, the fall being sufficient to splinter the strongest timbers used in their construction. Not a person on board escaped unhurt, except Eddie White, of Lake George, the news agent. Three persons were killed outright, being pinioned in debris in the cars and crushed to death. Among the dead was Garrett Wynkoop, a glove manufacturer at Gloversville.

    It was said that the trackman at Fort Edward was notified that a middle beam was broken at the bridge half an hour before the accident occurred, and pieces of the stringers of the bridge were picked up after the accident that were nearly rotted through. The train was owned by the Delaware & Hudson Canal company.

    The crash was heard all over the village and the list of injuries is truly horrendous. It was a miracle that more people weren't killed.

    Chris

Only the Newsboy Escaped.
     From the Washington Post, Tuesday, 23 October, 1883.

Crushed Through a Bridge, Three Persons Killed and Twenty-seven Wounded in a Disaster at Fort Edward, Thrilling Details.
     From the Plattsburgh Sentinel, Plattsburgh, New York, Friday, 26 October, 1883.

Terrible Disaster, A Passenger Train Goes Through the Bridge at Fort Edward Into the Canal.
     From the Ticonderoga Sentinel, Ticonderoga, New York, Friday, 26 October, 1883.