The Ghostman
Page 6
that the bridge failed to retain its convex form, instead being completely flattened under the weight of the crowd. As the bathtub drew under the bridge, the weight shifted and the chains on the southern side snapped with the result that the entire bridge flipped over, tossing nearly all its occupants into the freezing river below, the rest hanging from the northern chains. Immediately, all nearby boats were in requisition and as many as twenty-five were soon on the spot. A total of seventy-nine people lost their lives on that day, many of them being women and children, causing this disaster to be the greatest peacetime disaster to befall upon the town. It was said that, in the days that followed, there was not a dry eye in the town; every household had lost a friend or a family member from that disaster.