1937 – Feb 17, Golden Gate Bridge construction scaffold collapse, San Francisco, CA –  10

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 11-16-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

–10  Ishimaru. “Golden Gate marks 75th anniversary of 1937 accident.” KGO-TV, 2-16-2012.

–10  Oakland Tribune, CA. “10 Killed in Plunge Off Golden Gate Bridge…”2-17-1937, 1.

–10  PBS, American Experience.  Golden Gate Bridge. “Work Site Safety and Accidents.”

Narrative Information

Ishimaru: “San Francisco (KGO)…. Friday marks the 75th anniversary of a day when 10 men died while working on the Golden Gate Bridge.  In February 1937, with three months to completion, only one worker had died on the Golden Gate Bridge construction project. That was a stunning number when at the time, the norm was one death for every $1 million of cost – the Golden Gate was a $35 million project.  “Joseph Strauss was the chief engineer, had built a number of bridges, he was a safety nut,” USF Professor Charles Fracchia said.  

 

“Fracchia is a professor of humanities at USF and founder of the San Francisco Historical Society. He says Strauss insisted on a number of safety precautions, including harnesses and hard hats, an innovation at the time.  “Men were not very compliant with that; he fined men who did not wear hard hats,” Fracchia said.  Strauss also spent $125,000, a huge sum of money at the time, on a safety net to catch workers in a fall. That net saved the lives of 19 men, who later formed the Half-Way to Hell club.

 

“But on Feb. 17, 1937 a heavy section of scaffolding holding 12 men crashed into the net and shredded it.  “There were 13 men affected by this. One man hung onto a beam with his pipe still in his mouth by the way, until the rescued him. Twelve plunged into the bay, two were saved, 10 died,” Fracchia said.  Those 10, and the one who died the year before, are commemorated with a plaque on the bridge’s western sidewalk.” (Ishimaru. “Golden Gate marks 75th anniversary of 1937 accident.” KGO-TV, 2-16-2012.)

 

PBS: “In the era of the Golden Gate Bridge’s construction, workmen knew a grim rule of thumb: on average, one worker would be killed for every million dollars spent on a high-steel construction project. Image-conscious chief engineer Joseph Strauss wanted his project to be the exception. Strauss invested hundreds of thousands of dollars – Depression-era dollars – to improve equipment and safety standards for his workers.

 

“Hardhats    Russell Cone, resident engineer, supervised safety procedures for all workers. Cone made sure hard hats were worn at all times, since most workmen were injured by errant flying objects. Drinking alcohol or stunting – at any height – was grounds for immediate dismissal. Cone was a tough enforcer of the safety rules. But the most innovative safety feature at the Golden Gate site was yet to come.

 

“A Safety Net    In 1936, when delays slowed construction, Strauss invested over $130,000 in a novel safety feature: a vast net – similar to a circus net – suspended under the bridge. The safety net extended ten feet wider than the bridge’s width and fifteen feet further than the roadway’s length. It gave workers an abiding sense of security as they moved more freely – and quickly – across the slippery, half-constructed steel. “There’s no doubt the work went faster because of the net,” said Lefty Underkoffler, a Golden Gate bridgeman. Some workers were positively giddy about the innovation, so much so that they had to be threatened with dismissal so they wouldn’t dive into the net for thrills.

 

“The Accident    The net was soon considered a large success in its own right. It was patented by its manufacturer, J. L. Stuart Company. But the morning of February 16, 1937, would prove that the net was not infallible.[1] A crew of eleven men were working on a stripping platform close to the north tower, while two men in the net below scraped away debris. In a flash, the west side of the platform gave way. The five-ton structure hung crazily from the bridge, tilting its panicked load of workers toward the water hundreds of feet below. One worker, Tom Casey, lunged and grabbed onto a bridge beam, where he dangled until he was rescued.

 

“Deadly Plummet    One set of scaffold wheels had escaped its support rail, and the unbalanced weight quickly released the other two sets. The whole mechanism collapsed into the net, which held it – but only momentarily. The sound of the net tearing, according to witnesses, was like “the crack of a machine gun” or “the rip of a picket fence splintering.” The men, the wood, and the net plummeted 220 feet into the water – the height of a twenty-two-story building.

 

“Ten Men Killed    Of the twelve men who fell to the water, two survived. One of them was the foreman of the stripping crew, Slim Lambert. “As I was falling, a piece of lumber fell on my head. I was almost unconscious. Then the icy water of the channel brought me to,” said Lambert. He was twenty-six at the time and, fortunately, a strong swimmer. He struggled to free himself from the tangles of the net underwater. Lambert suffered a broken shoulder, several ribs, and neck several vertebrae, but he lived to tell the tale. In a single catastrophe, the project’s near-perfect safety record was obliterated.” (PBS, American Experience.  Golden Gate Bridge. “Work Site Safety and Accidents.”)

 

Newspaper

 

Feb 17: “A two-ton “roving”’ scaffold on the Golden Gate Bridge collapsed today, catapulting through the giant safety net beneath and sending an apparent total of 10 workmen to their deaths in a rip tide of the Golden Gate 250 feet below.

 

“Two men, miraculously “riding” the net down part of the way and easing their fall, escaped death and were rescued, injured, from bay waters after the swift tide had borne them out toward the ocean.

 

“A third man, who grasped a floor beam, managed to cling to it until he was rescued with a rope lowered from above by fellow workers.

 

“One Dead, Nine Missing and Three Rescued.

 

“An official report by Russell G. Cone, resident engineer of the bridge, listed one known dead, nine missing, and three rescued.

 

“Bodies of the nine men missing were believed entangled in the rope net, 2100 feet long and 110

feet-wide, which was torn entirely loose from the bridge and swept, apparently, out to sea.

 

“The accident, first serious one on the $35,000,000 structure due to be opened in May, was caused by failure of an aluminum roller casting, one of the supports of the movable scaffold on which 11 of the men were working, according to a preliminary report of Joseph B. Strauss, chief engineer of the bridge.

 

“The other two men were cleaning the net erected at a cost of nearly $100,000 six months ago in an attempt to prevent fatalities.  The men rescued were Oscar Osbourg, carpenter foreman for the Pacific Bridge Company, pavement contractors, and Evan C. Lambert, 1035 Haight Street, San Francisco.  Osbourg was picked up by one of several Coast Guard boats sent to the scene after the accident occurred shortly before 10 a. m.  A fishing boat rescued Lambert.

 

“The dead man, picked up by a Coast Guard boat, was identified as Frederick Gustave Dummatzen, 24, bridge laborer of 224 Downey Street, San Francisco.

 

“The seven-mile-an-hour tide sweeping outward through the Golden Gate carried Lambert half a mile or more out toward the ocean before he was rescued.  Lambert was clinging to the body of Dummatzen when he was rescued, not knowing his fellow worker had succumbed.  After he was taken to a hospital and treated for his injuries, Lambert explained that Dummatzen had been knocked unconscious by a timber that fell along with the men and net.  ‘I tried to save him,’ Lambert said.

 

“Lambert said that he saw at least one the missing men, Noel Flower, tangled in the net as it fell.

 

“The accident occurred without warning.  The scaffold, just south of the center of the 4200-foot long suspension span, was being moved when it suddenly gave way with a roar. The men were tossed into the net while the 3500-pound scaffold catapulted down on it, tearing it entirely away from the bridge center, where it was fastened.

 

“The men dropped into the water some 250 feet below as the net and scaffold struck the tide with a terrific splash. The other end of the net, fastened to the San Francisco tower 2100 feet away, was pulled loose.

 

“Men, scaffold and net soon disappeared from sight.  The bridge siren screamed a warning and all workmen on the $35,000,000 structure quit work for the day – the custom in steel work when tragedy strikes.

 

“L. J. Hanson. Coast Guardsman on lookout duty at Fort Point, three-quarters of a mile from the bridge, saw the net fall.  ‘A great section of the net came down,’ Hanson said. ‘The entire half on the south side hit the water, leaving only the half between the center and Marin County up.  ‘The bridge people called and told us what had happened. We sent out speed boats immediately.’

 

“Albert Ted, a painter working a short distance from where the scaffold fell, described the rescue of Tom Casey, the man who was pulled to safety with a rope.  ‘I saw the timbers and scaffold fall.’ He said. ‘One man fell and swung onto a beam-bracket. He was a red-haired man and still had his pipe in his mouth.  ‘I scrambled across the steel and tried to save him but some steel workers dropped him a rope with a loop. He got his leg in it and was pulled up. Then he took the pipe out of his mouth.’

 

“William Dowell, a steel worker, who aided in the rescue said he could not see how many of the men who fell could have escaped death.  ‘When they fell they were swept away by the swift tide,’ he said.  ‘I don’t see how they could have lived.’

 

“Virtually all who witnessed the accident were agreed that, by a strange quirk of fate the net that has saved 14 lives, contributed to the deaths of today’s victims. They believed the men entangled in it were held under water, helpless, until they drowned.

 

“The men on the scaffold were busy with a task begun only yesterday, removal of wooden forms from the concrete pavement of the deck.  The scaffold they worked on, designed to be moved along the bridge by rollers, was 20 feet long and 10 feet wide.

 

“Lambert, one of the survivors, said he managed to grab the torn net as he fell. He rode it downward toward the water until he could not hang on any longer.  When he let go, he was only 60 feet from the water, and the break in his fall saved his life.  It was conjectured that Osbourg also saved his life in the same manner.

 

“T. A. Reardon, chairman of the State Industrial Accident Commission, went to the scene from his San Francisco office to begin an investigation.  Reardon was accompanied by Frank C. MacDonald, member of the commission, and C. H. Fry, superintendent of the commission’s bureau of safety.

 

“Engineers said a week’s work will be necessary to repair the damage done in the accident.  The accident was the first serious one since construction began.  Joseph B. Strauss, engineer of the project, ordered all precautions taken in efforts to establish a safety record.

 

“When the perilous overwater work began, the safety nets were swung into place. They proved successful in catching workers who lost their footing on the span and fell.

 

“The Golden Gate Bridge is the world’s longest single suspension span, stretching 4200 feet from

tower to tower across the entrance to San Francisco Bay….It reaches from old Fort Point in the San Francisco Presidio to the rocky shore of Marin County, and will be a traffic ‘short cut’ to Northwestern California. It is the first bridge ever constructed across the entrance to a major world harbor. The deck struts are 214 feet above high water at the span center. The towers which support the yard-thick cables are 746 feet high.”

 

“Partial List of Victims in Accident                 The Dead

 

Frederick G. Dummatzen, 24…San Francisco

 

The Missing

 

Jack Norman, unmarried…San Francisco.

Chris Anderson.

Charles Lindrose, formerly of Modesto.

William ‘Shorty’ Bass…San Francisco.

Eldridge Hillen…San Francisco.

Terrence Halliman, 58…San Francisco.

Noel Flowers, also known as Louis Russell…San Francisco.

Two unidentified men.

Rescued

Oscar Osbourg…San Francisco, carpenter foreman, rescued…by a Coast Guard boat…

Even C. Lambert…San Francisco, rescued from water by fishing boat. Injured.

Tom Casey, pulled up from floor beam onto which he clung.”

 

(Oakland Tribune, CA. “10 Killed in Plunge Off Golden Gate Bridge As Crash Breaks Safety Net: Three Saved.” 2-17-1937, pp. 1 and 3.) 

 

Sources

 

Ishimaru, Heather. “Golden Gate marks 75th anniversary of 1937 accident.” KGO-TV, 2-16-2012. Accessed at:  http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=resources/traffic&id=8547481

 

Oakland Tribune, CA. “10 Killed in Plunge Off Golden Gate Bridge As Crash Breaks Safety Net: Three Saved.” 2-17-1937, 1.  http://newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=47797068

 

PBS. American Experience. Golden Gate Bridge. “Work Site Safety and Accidents.” Accessed at:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/goldengate-safety/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Incorrect date – was Wednesday, February 17.