1887 — Mar 14, Bussey Bridge Collapses Under Train, Roslindale near Boston, MA –23-25

lornajarrettblanchard March 14, 1987

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 7-12-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

–23-25 Blanchard estimate. We are of the opinion that the death toll was twenty-five based on

the list of fatalities below. However, since we note five sources noting 23 or 24, we

include these in our death toll range. The larger death tolls are either day after

newspaper reporting or sources that simply rely on these inaccurate day-after reports.

— 38 Wikipedia. “Forest Hills disaster.” 6-15-2022 edit. Accessed 7-12-2024.[1] [Not used.]

— 37 Boston Daily Globe. “37 Dead and Some Seventy-five injured.” 3-15-1887, p. 1.[2]

— 37 Celebrate Boston. Boston Disasters. “Bussey Bridge Wreck, 1887.”

— 32 Anglo-American Times (London). [On U.S. Train Wrecks], September 16, 1887, p. 13.

— 30 Hilliker, D.H. “March in Rail History,” Railroad Magazine, March 1942, p. 113.

— 25 Boston Post. “Killed and Injured. Reduced List of Fatalities…” 3-16-1887, p. 1.[3]

— 25 Philadelphia Record Almanac 1888. “General and Local Events, March, 1887,” p. 91.

— 24 Reed, R. C. Train Wrecks: A Pictorial History of Accidents on The Main Line. 1968, 86.

— 24 Reed, R.C. Train Wrecks: A Pictorial History of Accidents on The Main Line. 1968, p. 92.

— 24 Willsey and Lewis. “Memorable Railroad Accidents,” Harper’s Book of Facts. 1895, 674.

— 23 Sweeney, Edward J. “Bussey Bridge Train Disaster,” Yankee Magazine, March 1975.

— 23 Waymarking.com. “Bussey Bridge Collapse, – Boston, MA.”

Narrative Information

Celebrate Boston: “On March 14, 1887, the worst accident in Massachusetts railroad history occurred at Roslindale. At least 37 people were killed, with many people seriously hurt.

“The Boston & Providence Railroad 7 a.m. train to Boston was made up at Dedham with nine passenger cars and one baggage car. The train picked up more passengers at Roslindale, and headed north as usual. Just south of Forest Hills Station, the engine, tender, and two passenger cars made it across the Bussey Bridge at South Street.

“Suddenly, one end of the Bussey Bridge collapsed. Several of the passenger cars soared off the high embankment, and the wooden coaches were splintered into a hundred thousand pieces. A crash survivor described what happened in the March 23rd 1887 Boston Globe:

“I was sitting in the rear seat of the third [passenger] car, the first thing I noticed was the derailment of the front end of the car, this was one-third of the way across the bridge; I was facing the window, talking to a young Lady, in less than six seconds the rear end of the car seemed to sink and the heads of the passengers in the front appeared at least six feet higher than our own. Then came a violent shock that tore away the flooring. The front platform of the car was carried forward and struck the abutment. The rear end of the car also struck the abutment with great force….”

“Death was violent, swift, and horrific for many passengers. A few people were crushed beyond recognition, with their body parts strewn about the debris. Eyewitness accounts of victims were quite graphic… The March 15th 1887 Boston Globe describes some victims at the scene:

“Over the body of one young girl who was dead, the police were bending, endeavoring to ascertain her name or where she belonged. There was nothing about her to indicate who or what she was, except that she probably was a store girl, for in her hand she still held a bag that contained her luncheon. Her head and body were terribly bruised, and it was evident she was killed instantly.

A young man whose leg was completely crushed lay beside her, and while some were bending over him, endeavoring to soothe his suffering until the arrival of the physicians he opened his eyes, and seeing the young girl, he begged those about him to turn their attention to her; that he was strong and could wait until she had been cared for. He was not, however, as strong as he supposed he was, and [was] soon swooned away. He was, however, strong enough to know how to be brave.”

“The wreck was totally preventable. There were many causes of the accident, and the Boston & Providence Railroad was completely negligent. Some of the root causes include:

“Poor Design

The bridge was built at a slanted angle to the street below. Iron trusses were built across the span. Semi-perpendicular I-beams supported the track, and were suspended from these trusses by iron hangers. The hangers resembled large cotter pins looped at both ends. Some of the hangers were inaccessible for inspection, and had rusted completely through. The primary structural reason for the collapse was the failure of the hangers.

“Poor Repairs & Inspection – The bridge was originally constructed of wood, and then an iron truss was added on one side. In 1876, the bridge was rebuilt and the older iron truss was moved to the other side, replacing the wooden span. A 2nd iron truss was added, making an iron pair. The designers of the bridge were not civil engineers. Manufacturers of the iron components were never supervised. Contractors that built and/or repaired the bridge were never supervised.

“The Boston & Providence Railroad officials initially agreed that rusted hangers had caused the accident, but then the company backed off from its responsibility. Theories were put forth that the derailing of cars had caused the bridge to fail, and that part of a brake system had snagged in the bridge which splintered it.

“Also noteworthy, it was a miracle that the wooden coaches did not ignite into an inferno, and burn the trapped passengers to death. Wood stoves in the passenger cars were locked shut, preventing embers from escaping. The engineer of the doomed train sped forward into Forest Hills Station, jumped off the train, and pulled an alarm to get fire companies to the scene quickly.

“Some of the good that arose from this tragic event is that all railroads in Massachusetts were soon required to inspect all bridges by a competent engineer once every two years.” (Celebrate Boston. Boston Disasters. “Bussey Bridge Wreck, 1887.”)

Damon: “…one of the most disastrous accidents [occurred] when a local train from Dedham fell through the Buzzey Bridge near the Forest Hills Station, March 14, 1887.” (Damon. “Person Reminiscences…” in Fisher. The Story of… Old Colony Railroad. 1919, 136.)

Hilliker: “Collapse of Bridge at Forest Hills Station near Boston, Mass., wrecked a Boston & Providence passenger train, killing 30 persons and injuring more than 100 others…” (Hilliker, D.H. “March in Rail History,” Railroad Magazine, March 1942, p. 113.)

Philadelphia Record Almanac 1888: March 14, 1887. “Bussey Park Bridge, in a remote suburb of Boston, fell beneath a crowded passenger train, by which 25 persons were killed and 114 injured.” (Philadelphia Record Almanac 1888. “General and Local Events, March, 1887,” p. 91.)

Sweeney, Edward J. “Bussey Bridge Train Disaster,” Yankee Magazine, March 1975:

“March 14, 1887 dawned gray and cold in Dedham, Massachusetts. It was a snappy Monday morning with the temperature at about 34 degrees. Shortly after 6:00 a.m., Boston & Providence Railroad engineer Walter White and his fireman Alfred Billings steamed their engine, the D.B. Torrey, the short distance from the Dedham engine house to the impressive stone edifice that was the Dedham depot of the Providence Railroad.

“Engineer White, a 31-year veteran on the Dedham to Boston run, cautiously backed into the train of nine open-platform, red-varnished coaches that made up the 7:00 A.m. train to Boston. The yardman dropped the pin into the coupling and White and the Torrey were tied to the head end. This was the only day in the week when he would trail nine cars, for on Mondays the passenger load required one extra car.

”The run was familiar to White. He’d covered the same route for three decades, and today, as usual, he would follow the 6:10 to Boston. His passengers would be businessmen, workingmen, and store girls – about 100 by the time they left Roslindale, the community halfway between Dedham and Boston’s Park Square Depot.

“The D.B. Torrey was a trim little 440 American Type locomotive, the mainstay of American railroads of the 1880’s. She was built by the Rhode Island Locomotive Works in 1880 and weighed 35½ tons. She had just been fitted with a new stack, slightly smaller than her original, and this caused her to steam with a little more difficulty than usual. But this was the only thing out of the ordinary that morning, and it meant simply that Billings would labor more with the coal scoop and White wouldn’t have the power normally available.

“Promptly at 7:00 a.m., the train of partially-filled wooden coaches chugged out of Dedham Square over the bridge across High Street and into the outskirts of town. It steamed through snow-covered meadows and crossed the iron bridge spanning Mother Brook. Billings watched the boiler pressure gauge needle dance between 90 and 105 pounds, down a bit from the normal pressure that powered the Torrey.

“Back in the coaches, Conductor Myron Tilden and his assistants William Alden and Webster Drake busied themselves taking tickets, while brakeman John Tripp, Winfield Smith, and Elisha Annis remained alert for the engine whistle that would send them to the end platforms to wind the brakewheels. Their effort, added to the air brake on the Torrey, would be more than sufficient to stop the train under normal circumstances. The day of the automatic air brake was just dawning, and while mainline trains were equipped with such systems, branch trains had yet to be modernized.

“At each of the closely spaced stations – Spring Street, West Roxbury, Highland, and Central – the train picked up more of its human cargo. Five stops after leaving Dedham the train stood in Roslindale station. By then, nearly 200 passengers occupied the eight coaches and one combination baggage and smoking car coupled to the end of the train.

““White’s watch showed him seven minutes late. The timetable called for a 15 minute run from Dedham to Forest Hills, about a mile and a half from Roslindale. The extra car, the cool morning which made wheel bearings stiff, and the poor steaming of the Torrey had combined to lose time from White’s schedule. Regardless, he was better than halfway into Boston on a routine Monday morning in March.

“Slowly, White notched the Torrey’s throttle out. The engine barked through a shallow earth cut just east of the station and began the slight downgrade toward Forest Hills. Out of the cut and onto a high embankment the train rattled above the frozen ice and snow covered meadows below.

“About a quarter mile ahead, the single-track Dedham Branch crossed South Street on a spindly iron truss bridge known as the Bussey Bridge. It took its name from the old Bussey family farm that later was to become a part of the would-famous Arnold Arboretum. In earlier days, as a wooden bridge, it was sheathed in tin to prevent it from catching fire. The iron structure, which replaced it, was still known as the Tin Bridge.

“The Bussey Bridge, toward which 200 souls in nine fragile coaches were heading, was by any standards, a peculiar structure. It crossed the street at an incredibly oblique angle, its spindly iron trusswork bridging a gap of some 120 feet between high granite abutments. So sharp was the angle of the span that the floor beam which ran from the center of the truss on one side rested on the end of the truss which supported the other side of the bridge. Its design was such that certain structural members carried a disproportionate share of the load of every locomotive and car passing over the structure. And this was a violation of the laws of physics and mechanics that would not be tolerated forever.

“That March morning, Engineer White approached the old Tin Bridge at a cautious speed. It was a habit, arising from restrictions placed on the bridge prior to its rebuilding in 1876.

“There was no indication whatever of any danger as the D. B. Torrey and her nine red coaches rolled toward the bridge. To the engine crew the bridge appeared as solid and safe as ever. White could see meadows stretching away on either side of the embankment, their pale, frozen grass surface punctuated occasionally by stands of bare maples and elms.

“The familiar rumble White had heard as his engines crossed innumerable bridges during his career filled his ears as he passed over Bussey Bridge that morning. As the Torrey reached the Boston end of the span, however, White felt a sudden jarring of the engine’s front end, and as the drivers reached the far abutment there was a strong shock unlike anything he had ever felt passing over the bridge.

“Immediately he looked back and saw the first car off the track, careening drunkenly behind him. His blood ran cold as he watched the second, third, and fourth cars dancing insanely, trailed by an ugly cloud of smoke and dust where five more cars loaded with passengers should be crossing the bridge.

“Instinctively he knew that his train, save the first three or four cars, had gone through the bridge. In the seconds it took for the awesome spectacle to unfold, White’s hands pulled the reversing lever – the fastest way to bring the Torrey to a halt. By now the force of the writhing cars and their human cargo had snapped the coupling at the tender and the Torrey was free.

“As the engine came to a halt, White’s reflexes told him there was nothing he and his fireman could do. He knew there was a Dedham-bound train with Engineer Tim Prince in the cab waiting for him at Forest Hills. It was loaded with laborers headed for Dedham to work on a bridge project. He knew too, that these husky workers might well mean the difference between life and death to those trapped in the coaches which lay in a heap beneath where the Bussey Bridge once stood.

“Before the engine stopped, White threw the reversing lever ahead, yanked the throttle out, and the Torrey lunged forward again. White grabbed the whistle cord, and the polished brass steam whistle atop the Torrey’s dome screamed in anguish as she roared toward Forest Hills.

”Woodcutters in the woods beside the tracks and residents along the line were stopped by the piercing wails of the whistle. They watched as the Torrey raced down the track, her engineer and fireman frantically waving and pointing back in the direction she had come from. That some kind of calamity had occurred was obvious.

“In what seemed like seconds, the Torrey was at Forest Hills. White and Billings yelled to station agent William Worley that a train had gone through the bridge and to send Jim Prince’s three-car train with its laborers to the scene.

“Immediately Prince had his engine barking at full throttle up the branch toward the ill-fated commuter train. White leaped from his cab and ran into the small frame depot where he ordered Worley to telephone for doctors and ambulances.

“Five minutes later he was again aboard the Torrey, headed back to the scene to give what help he could to the dead and injured.

“What met them when they returned was a ghastly panorama. Three cars teetered on the frozen roadbed, their wheels torn from beneath them, underbodies and platforms smashed to kindling. Behind the third car the roof of the fourth lay on roadbed, torn from the rest of the car body, which was some 50 feet below. The fifth through the ninth cars were either at the bottom of the embankment or in the chasm where the bridge had stood.

“The rear car, which had been the smoker, was smashed, turned upside down. The next car was thrown on its side and stove in; the next car dropped square on its wheels and stood upright. The succeeding two cars were telescoped and lapped onto each other and a part of the sixth car was wedged between the telescope and the embankment. All the cars were smashed and broken, twisted and entwined with the iron beams and girders of the bridge. Broken rails, twisted and jagged bars of iron, and splintered wood combined with badly mangled dead and injured in a scene of horror.

“Within minutes, spurred on by White’s alarm, help was arriving from everywhere. Residents and shopkeepers, workers and doctors from Roslindale arrived in time to extinguish one small fire and help in removing the injured. Hundreds worked feverishly to remove the wounded. A special train carrying doctors, hastily assembled by railroad officials from the professional buildings around Park Square Depot in Boston, arrived to render medical aid.

“When all the passengers had been removed the dead and near-dead numbered 23. Most of the dead had been killed instantly. Some of the injured survived a few hours, one several days. Over 100 were injured, more than half of them seriously.

“What caused this terrible disaster? The Boston Globe that evening speculated that a weakened span failed under the weight of the train.

“The Massachusetts Board of Railroad Commissioners convened the day after the wreck and sat until April 4, gathering facts upon which to determine the cause. What it heard from survivors, railroad officials, the builder of the Bussey Bridge, and outside engineering experts was a story of an incredible collection of circumstances culminating in the tragic collapse.

“The primary cause was determined to be a pair of iron hangers which formed an integral part of the supporting network of iron rods making up one of the two trusses upon which the rails rested. Improperly designed and manufactured, they weakened gradually with the passage of time and failed catastrophically that morning. The weight of the Torrey snapped the hangers, and the bridge immediately began to disintegrate as the train crossed the span.

“The parade of witnesses described how the Boston & Providence in 1876 entered into a contract with one Edward Hewins, representing the Metropolitan Bridge Company, to rebuild the bridge. Testimony further revealed that he alone was the Metropolitan Bridge Company. When pressed on this point by the commissioners, Hewins testified it had been his intention to organize a bridge company at the time but never got around to doing it. The two trusses which made up the ill-fated bridge were actually fabricated by two separate iron works. The Commissioners found that the railroad had never investigated the Metropolitan Bridge Company and that no one involved in making the contract really knew enough about iron bridge building to pass intelligently on the structure’s design and specifications. In fact, it was generally admitted during the hearings that the company didn’t even employ an expert to review the design of the bridge once it had been built.

“One railroad employee who had inspected the bridge regularly was a machinist who was not trained to look at key structural parts for signs of failure.

“Six years earlier the Commission had recommended a series of structural tests for the bridge, which were never conducted. Crossties were spaced too far apart for safety. The bridge was not equipped with guardrails to catch the wheels of a derailed train and guide them safely across. And, tragically, the Westinghouse automatic air brake was not in operation on the train even though it was becoming more common on the nation’s railroads. Had it been in use, it might have prevented the fatal plunge of coaches into the chasm following the separation of the train from the engine.

“Fire, the real horror of most train wrecks of the era, didn’t occur because the B & P followed a policy of bolting its coal-burning, car-heating stoves to the floor and bolting the doors shut, thereby, eliminating the possibility of hot coals igniting the wooden wreckage. “The wreck was a calamity for the Boston & Providence, which for almost twenty years previously had not had a train accident resulting in injury or loss of life to a passenger.

“Today the Boston & Providence is long gone, along with its Dedham Branch to West Roxbury. Where once stood the Dedham depot, a municipal parking lot serves Dedham shoppers. Trains still cross South Street in Roslindale on the Penn Central’s Needham Branch. But the Bussey Bridge they use is a solid, substantial granite arch, which has safely carried passenger and freight trains since before the turn of the century. It stands as a stone monument to the hapless passengers on the 7:00 A.M. train and the quick-thinking engineer whose fast action that Monday morning in March saved so many lives.” (Sweeney, Edward J. “Bussey Bridge Train Disaster,” Yankee Magazine, March 1975.)

Willsey: “Bridge breaks under train near Boston, Mass.; 24 killed, 115 injured…14 March. 1887.” (Willsey 1895, 674)

Newspaper

March 15, Boston Daily Globe: “By the accident yesterday on the Boston & Providence Railroad thirty-eight souls were buried into eternity and some forty persons were more or less injured. It was by all odds the most serious of any accident of a like nature that has happened in this State for many years. Beside it the Wollaston disaster pales into insignificance.

“In point of numbers killed and injured it rivals the White River Junction accident, although the terrible results from fire that followed that catastrophe were happily averted in this instance. And in this event the company is to be complimented for the precaution taken in having the doors of the stoves all locked. By this means the hot coals were kept from falling upon the victims when the terrible crash came. It seems, however, that one stove door – in the smoker, it is thought – was wrenched open and some upholstery ignited, but the incipient flames were quickly subdued.

“The dead and the dying were speedily cared for, and very fortunately for the wounded, the police stations were so near that ambulances hastily summoned were soon on the spot and the suffering ones taken to the hospitals, where they were promptly cared for.

“Now that the accident has occurred the natural question that arises is, “How did it happen?” Of course, everyone knows that “it was a bridge that gave way,” but no one yesterday seemed to be very clear as to just how and why it happened. Competent civil engineers and others who made investigations yesterday were very emphatic in saying that the material of which the bridge was composed was imperfect….

“Of those who were either killed at the accident, or who have since died from their injuries, the names of thirty-eight are known and given below, and this probably includes all up to date. There are two more victims of the accident lying at the point of death at the Massachusetts General Hospital and probably will not survive today. It is also likely that others are so seriously injured that they cannot live long. The following list is the death roll complete up to the time of going to press this morning. Among the names of those known to be killed are the following: [37 names.]

Assistant Conductor Myron Tilden, Dedham
Miss Lizzie Mandeville, Dedham
Miss Lizzie Walton, Dedham
Edward E. Norris, Dedham
Mrs. Kennard, Roslindale
Mrs. Harkins
Patrolman Waldo B. Lailer of Division 13
William S. Strong, Roslindale
William Edward Durham, Roslindale
Miss L.H. Price, Dedham
Miss Barry
Mrs. Hormisdas Cardinal, Roslindale
Alice Burnett, 16 years
Webster Clapp of Central Station
Mrs. Cornell of Washington St, Roslindale
Edgar M. Snow of West Roxbury
William Johnson, violinist, Roslindale
Brakeman Smith of West Roxbury
James Gates of Roslindale
S.S. Houghton, gasfitter, Roslindale
William Snow of West Roxbury
H.F. Johnston of Boston
Miss Norris, West Roxbury
O. Henry Gay of Centre St., Roxbury
Henry Stone of West Roxbury
Mrs. Sarah E. Ellis of Medfield
Webster Drake, Conductor, Dedham
Mr. Adams of Roslindale
Miss Swallow, Roslindale
– – – – Barrack, Corinth St, Roslindale
Miss Ida Adams, 16 years, Roslindale
Rose Walsh, Park St, West Roxbury
Albert S. Johnson, 40 years, Roslindale
Peter Swaben, tailor, 45, Roslindale
Emma O. Hill, Roslindale
Hattie J. Dudley, Roslindale
Mrs. M.L. Odiorne, Dover, N.H. employed on Summer St., Boston

“Among the earliest arrivals of city people at the scene of the accident were a number of gentlemen who are highly thought of in the scientific world, and some who are well known among the leading civil engineers of Boston. The nearness of the accident to Boston, and its easy accessibility, drew these gentlemen to the spot in order to observe the peculiarities of the bridge and to examine it from a scientific point of view. The state of things they found caused considerable astonishment among them, and there were many things in the construction of the structure which at first seemed somewhat odd, but an explanation of the history of the bridge removed some of the adverse criticism, but it did not – to judge from some of the remarks that were heard – add much to the reputation of the engineers who constructed it.

“The facts in regard to the history of the Bussey Bridge, better known as the “Tin Bridge” appear to be about as follows: The original wooden bridge was built a long time ago, and was made wide enough for a double track, but there never has been but one upon it. Very naturally the side on which the track in use was placed gave out first. When it was found that the truss on the northwest side required to be replaced the company took it out and put in an iron truss and left the other side wood as originally built. This was the condition of the bridge for a number of years according to the statement made by a well-known Boston engineer. Thus, one end of the floor beams rested on wood and one end on iron. After a while the company found that it would be necessary to remove the wooden truss, and it was done. The iron truss on the northwest side was moved over on to the position vacated by the wooden truss, and its place was supplied with a new iron one, which was supposed to be stronger than the first iron one. This new iron truss, up to the moment of the accident, carried the greater part of the load that passed over the bridge. This accounted in some degree for the reason of the mechanical experts finding what was very odd to them, that one of these trusses was so different from the other, something of an unusual occurrence….” (Boston Daily Globe. “37 Dead and Some Seventy-five injured.” 3-15-1887, p. 1.)

March 16, Boston Post: “The revised list of deaths by the disaster at Forest Hills reduces the number of fatalities to twenty-five, but a fatal result in several serious cases will doubtless swell this total….

Killed. [We number (24 names) and alphabetize.]

Adams, Miss Ida, 16 years of age, Roslindale.
Barak, Joseph, Roslindale.
Brooks, Miss Mary E., Roxbury.
Burnett, Alice, 16 years of age, Roslindale; cashier at Jordan, Marsh & Co.’s.
Cardinal, Mrs. Hormisdas [or Hariet][4], Roslindale.
Clapp, W. Webster, 21 years of age, Central station.
[Dudley, Miss Hattie. Not noted here but funeral noted the next day.[5]]
Durham, William R., died at the City Hospital. Roslindale…
Ellis, Miss Sarah R., Medfield. [Or. Miss Elwell of Medfield.[6]
Gay, O. Harry, 27 years of age, clerk, West Rosbury. Died in ambulance…
Hill, Emma P., 25 years of age, Central station…
Houghton, Stephen T., 38…, Roslindale, gasfitter; leaves widow and two children.
Johnson, Albert E., Roslindale, 40 years of age… [28 according to BP of Mar 16.][7]
Lailer, Waldo B., policeman, Station 13, Spring street…
Mandeville, Lizzie C., Dedham, 15 years of age. She was employed in Boston.
Norris, Edward E., car counter, Boston & Providence railroad, Dedham.
Norris, Miss, West Roxbury.
Odiorne, Miss M. L., Dover N.H., employed by Salem Wilder, Sumner street.
Price, Miss Laura A., Part street, West Roxbury.
Snow, William Edgar, West Roxbury, salesman for Gerrish & O’Brien.
Strong, William S., Roslindale, died at the City Hospital
Swaben, Peter, 45 years of age, tailor, West Roxbury.
Tilden, Myron, conductor, Dedham. He leaves a family.
Walton, Miss Elizabeth A., Dedham, 17 years of age; employed by Jordan, Marsh & Co.
Welch, Miss Rose, West Roxbury. For fifteen years employed by Jordan, Marsh & Co.

(Boston Post. “Killed and Injured. Reduced List of Fatalities…” 3-16-1887, p. 1.)

Sources

Anglo-American Times, London. [U.S. Train Wrecks.] 9-16-1887, p. 13. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=154868655

Boston Daily Globe. [no title]. 3-15-1887. Cited by Wikipedia and accessed 7-12-2024 at: https://www.jphs.org/transportation/bussey-bridge-disaster-feature-news-account.html#gsc.tab=0

Boston Daily Globe. “37 Dead and Some Seventy-five injured.” 3-15-1887, p. 1. Accessed 7-12-2024 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-daily-globe-mar-15-1887-p-1/

Boston Post. “Funerals of the Victims. A Day of Mourning in Dedham and Roslindale.” 3-17-1887, p. 8. Accessed 7-12-2024 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-post-mar-17-1887-p-8/

Boston Post. “Killed and Injured. Reduced List of Fatalities…” 3-16-1887, p. 1. Accessed 7-12-2024 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-post-mar-16-1887-p-1/

Celebrate Boston. Boston Disasters. “Bussey Bridge Wreck, 1887.” Accessed 10-3-2009 at: http://www.celebrateboston.com/disasters/railroad/busseybridgewreck.htm

Fisher, Charles E. The Story of the Old Colony Railroad. 1919. Digitized by google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=oL8pAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Hilliker, D.H. “March in Rail History,” Railroad Magazine, March 1942, pp. 112-113.

Philadelphia Record Almanac 1888. “General and Local Events, March, 1887.”

Reed, Robert C. Train Wrecks: A Pictorial History of Accidents on The Main Line. New York: Bonanza Books, 1968.

Sweeney, Edward J. “Bussey Bridge Train Disaster,” Yankee Magazine, March 1975; reproduced by Jamaica Plain Historical Society, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts at: http://www.jphs.org/transportation/bussey-bridge-train-disaster.html

Waymarking.com. “Bussey Bridge Collapse, – Boston, MA.” Accessed 1-13-2010 at: http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3P09_Bussey_Bridge_Collapse_Boston_MA

Wikipedia. “Forest Hills disaster.” 6-15-2022 edit. Accessed 7-12-2024 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Hills_disaster

Willsey, Joseph H. (Compiler), Charlton T. Lewis (Editor). Harper’s Book of Facts: A Classified History of the World. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1895. Accessed 9-4-2017 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=UcwGAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false

[1] Cites two sources: (1) Boston Daily Globe. 3-15-1887. [We have accessed this article via newpaperarchive.com and the headline is “37 Dead.” However within the text it states that “Of those who were either killed at the accident, or who have since died from their injuries, the names of thirty-eight are known and given below…” The count, though, is 37. (2) Robert Carroll Reed. Train Wrecks: A Pictorial History of Accidents on the Main Line. 1937. On page 95, however, it is written that “Twenty-four people died when an iron bridge fell.”

[2] Boston Post, the next day, noted the death toll had been reduced to twenty-five.

[3] Twenty-four names are listed however.

[4] Boston Post. “Funerals of the Victims. A Day of Mourning in Dedham and Roslindale.” 3-17-1887, p. 8.

[5] Boston Post. “Funerals of the Victims. A Day of Mourning in Dedham and Roslindale.” 3-17-1887, p. 8.

[6] Boston Post. “Funerals of the Victims. A Day of Mourning in Dedham and Roslindale.” 3-17-1887, p. 8.

[7] Boston Post. “Funerals of the Victims. A Day of Mourning in Dedham and Roslindale.” 3-17-1887, p. 8.