History & local legend
Pittsburgh's Wabash Bridge once carried a railroad across the Monongahela River. Its reputation for misfortune began during construction, when a crane collapsed on October 19, 1903, killing ten workers before the bridge had carried its first train.
Steve Mellon's reconstruction for Pittsburgh Union Progress follows the disaster through newspaper reports and coroner's records. As the crane failed, its operator sounded a warning whistle. Earl Crider, working on a barge below, saw the falling steel and jumped into the river. He survived, while others on the crane and barge could not escape.
The bridge opened in 1904, but the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway went bankrupt in 1908. Later schemes to reuse the crossing failed, and it was dismantled in 1948.
