34 PERSONS DROWN AS CROWDED BRIDGE FALLS INTO RIVER.

FOOTPATH OF CHESTER, PA., STRUCTURE GIVES WAY UNDER PRESSURE OF BIG CROWD.

SCORE SAVED FROM STREAM.

MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN WERE WATCHING SEARCH FOR DROWNED BOY WHEN CRASH CAME.

MANY BODIES RECOVERED.

POLICE, FIREMEN AND CIVILIANS ARE PRESSED INTO SERVICE IN THE WORK OF RESCUE.

Special to The New York Times.
Chester, Pa., Sept. 10. -- Thirty-four persons are known to have been drowned and more than a score are lying injured in hospitals as the result of the collapse at 7:10 o'clock tonight of the footpath of the Third Street Bridge over the river here.
Gathered on the bridge to watch the recovery of the body of a five-year-old boy who had fallen from the river bank and drowned, sixty men, women and children, some of them infants in arms, were thrown into fifteen feet of water when the old structure broke.
The little boy, GUS APOSTELOS, had been playing on the bank when he suddenly slipped and fell into the water among coal and ice barges moored to the shore. There was an immediate alarm, and the police arrived with grappling hooks and rowboats. They were at work in a few minutes.
The Known Dead.
The list of dead, so far as identified, is:
McBRIDE, EUGENE, Third and Lloyd Streets.
HARDY, RALPH, negro, address unknown.
GORDY, RALPH, 320 Fulton Street.
KNOPF, MORRIS, 74 West Tenth Street.
HELLINGER, ANNA, 222 Lloyd Street.
BIEHER, JOHN, 320 Fulton Street.
WRIGHT, JAMES, shipfitter, Sun Shipyard, home address unknown.
GARVEY, JOHN, Third and Penn Streets.
KLINE, EDWARD, Fifth and Penn Streets.
HAMILTON, GEORGE, 620 West Second Street.
MURRAY, THOMAS, of Penn Street.
HAWKINS, RUTH, 715 Penn Street.
HAWKINS, ROY, brother of RUTH, 715 Penn Street.
BARKER, MARY, 514 West Second Street.
MURTHA, MRS. MAUD, 731 West Second Street.
DIETZ, MRS. MAMIE, Ashton, Pa.
SPRINGFELLOW, MRS., 351 Parker Street.
MARTIN, THOMAS, 424 East Fourth Street.
FIAT, TONY, 722 West Fifth Street.
WITHINGTON, DOROTHY, 402 West Second Street.
Mothers Rush To Bridge.
Frantic mothers, each thinking it was her boy who had met with death, rushed down to the riverside and out upon the bridge. They were joined by others. The bridge is of wooden construction and is thirty years old.
Out upon it the crowd surged. Suddenly there was a crack as of a large rifle shot. Then there was a pattering, ripping sound, as of machine guns and drums sounding together in one great volume.
In an instant those who has gathered on the bridge were a mass of tangled humanity, fighting for life in the murky waters of the river. Expert swimmers were among them, but they were unable to make a single stroke for themselves or for others.
Those who went over first were without even the slightest hope of rescue. They were crushed to the very bottom of the river and there were imbedded in the mud.
Every telephone in the neighborhood was pressed into service to send calls for aid. The Police Headquarters, the Fire Department, the Chester and Crozier Hospitals were called, and physicians were summoned. Hurried preparations were made for the care of the injured and the dead.
Four pulmotors were on the scene in a few minutes, and each person brought to shore was treated, whether or not he showed signs of life.
Fourteen Bodies Together.
T. J. FERGUSON, E. J. SMULLEN and DEAN J. DEAKYNE have a garage within a few feet of the bridge. The sound of the cracking girders and planking had hardly subsided when they had a motor truck backed against the shore. Men volunteered from every direction. Fourteen bodies were in the machine in a few minutes and it was on its was to a hospital.
The thought was that they were dead, but there was hope of life. The machine went over a rough road to the institution of mercy. The bodies were shaken together. When the hospital was reached it was found that among the fourteen one -- a woman -- was alive. She was hurried to a ward and every effort was made to save her life.
The crowd grew beyond all proportions and those who surged about the morgue became frantic with fear. Women became hysterical and fainted.
Coroner WHITE summoned to his aid private citizens, and with their assistance he threw a cordon about the building, while preparations went on inside to place the bodies in ordered rows that their relatives and friends might identify them.
Women Among The Dead.
Of the first ten dead taken from the river, three were women and seven were men.
The accident happened just as the tide was at ebb. Realizing that in a few moments it would be flowing out into the Delaware and towards the sea, the firemen with forty-foot ladders, soon had a wooden screen thrown deep into the waters. Then fishing nets were sent for and a screen of finer mesh was constructed so that none of the bodies might be washed away.
Only the footpath on the bridge collapsed. The Belgian block vehicle way and two car tracks remained intact. From that point and from the river shore scores of men worked with grappling hooks, while men in thirty row boats worked out in the river. Coroner WHITE says he expects the death list to go far above the twenty now in the morgue.
Captain WILLIAMS, a professional diver, was sent down to the river bottom tonight and is searching for more bodies. Powerful searchlights were brought from nearby shipyards and the whole scene was flooded with light.
Members of a theatrical company playing in Chester tonight were about to step upon the bridge on their way to the theatre just as the structure collapsed. Every man in the company threw off coat and shoes in an instant and sprang into the water to help save those who were not beyond rescue and to recover what bodies could be found.
JAMES EMERBE dragged 23 men, women and children from the water. Nine of them were dead.
Chief of Police J. H. DAVENPORT had all the men he could gather together on the scene within fifteen minutes after the disaster. They found their numbers too few to cope with the entire situation and so the cooler heads among the civilians were pressed into service for the night.

The New York Times New York 1921-09-11
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!