(This article first appeared in the April print edition of the Hendersonian.)
The Big Four bridge in Louisville, which currently carries pedestrians and bicyclists across the Ohio River, cost more lives than any other bridge there. Nine Henderson men died Jan. 9, 1890, in the bridge’s first major accident, along with five from other places.
That’s almost triple the number who were killed erecting Henderson’s first railroad bridge. Haywood Alexander fell into the river Sept. 22, 1883. Pryor Letcher fell into the river Sept. 7, 1884. An Evansville man named Frank Russell jumped into the river Oct. 17, 1884, to dodge a falling pile; it hit him in the head as he was surfacing. James Wilkes was killed in a boiler explosion on the Indiana shore Dec. 8, 1884, and an unnamed Black man was hit by a train in mid-January of 1885.
You’ll note none of them were sandhogs, which is what they used to call workers who excavated foundations for bridge piers back then. It was highly hazardous work.
Building bridge piers once involved constructing large wooden boxes called caissons, which were towed to where the pier was to be built and sunk to the bottom by stacking stones atop them.
When the caisson was on the bottom the sandhogs entered the claustrophobic chamber via airlocks and began digging through the sand and gravel to reach bedrock. Air was pumped in to keep the water out.
The caisson gradually settled as excavation proceeded. Both the caisson and the pier were filled with concrete once bedrock had been reached.
The 1890 Louisville accident occurred because proper air pressure had not been maintained in the caisson, according to various newspaper reports, many of which were compiled by Lorna Jarrett Blanchard for the website Deadliest American Disasters and Large Loss-of-Life Events.
Four of the 18 men in the caisson escaped, but only three Black Hendersonians were named. They were Abe Taylor, Lewis Coche and Frank H. Haddox.
Taylor, who had been nearest the ladder, provided a description of the “panic-stricken workmen imprisoned in the air chamber beneath the bed of the river.”
Water began to trickle from underneath the caisson’s edge the afternoon of the accident, but pumps were taking it out so there was no apprehension. But then a flood gushed in from all sides.
“The men, too late, realized their deadly peril, and all rushed for the exit into the escape pipe. Immediately around this little trap door … the frantic unfortunates fought like demons, all knowing that but a few of them could pass through the inner trap before the air chamber was completely filled by the inrushing tide. Only one could go through at a time, and as one man gained preeminence, he was snatched back by his frenzied companions and drawn back into the struggling crowd.”
The Washington (D.C.) Star of Jan. 10 reported those saved “had hardly got clear of the caisson when the water burst through the manhole in a surge, knocking them all into the river, where they were picked up.”
The New York Times of Jan. 10 reported that within an hour of the accident about 3,000 people gathered on the riverbank and lights plied the water, but there was no sign “to give hope to the anguish-stricken mothers and wives who stood in the throng on the shore.”
Later accounts about attempts to recover bodies corroborated the panic that had overcome the victims. The New York Times reported three bodies were initially recovered: One had succeeded in getting through the airlock when death claimed him; another had his hands “fastened by death in the clothes” of the man ahead of him; a third man appeared to be trying to “push back someone who was clinging to his legs.”
The Henderson victims, all of whom were Black, are as follows: Thomas Ash, 38; Monroe Bowling, 34; Charles Chiles, 30; Thomas Johnson, 30; Thomas Smith, 27; Joseph Gordon, 25; Frank Soaper, 25; Hamilton Morris, 20; and Robert Tyler, 16.
Initial reports had laid blame on the crew foreman, who “while attempting to reduce the air pressure turned the valve of the supply pipe too far,” allowing water to enter the caisson. But a coroner’s jury later cleared the contractor, Sooy, Smith & Co. of New York City.
“We believe the said accident was the result of the men in the caisson becoming panic-stricken,” the verdict read. “The contractors are exonerated.”
Construction on the Big Four bridge began Oct. 10, 1888, and was completed in September 1895. A second accident killed six men May 14, 1890. On Dec. 15, 1893, one of the nation’s deadliest bridge disasters occurred when 41 men were dumped into the icy Ohio; 21 of them died.
The bridge opened to pedestrian traffic in 2013 and at night is a lovely sight. Remember its victims the next time you enjoy its beauty.
