On the morning of Saturday, April 18, 1885, the central and southern spans of the 250-foot-long Gorge Bridge on the High Bridge Branch collapsed as a heavily laden 46-car iron ore train, drawn by the Baldwin 4-6-0 locomotive No. 112 named Columbia, began to cross. The train was traveling from the iron mines in Chester, Port Oram (Wharton), and Hibernia to High Bridge, carrying 40 freight cars loaded with 500 tons of iron ore, 5 freight cars containing 90 tons of pig iron, and a caboose. As the locomotive and first few cars passed over the wooden Howe Truss bridge, the center and southern spans gave way, dropping the locomotive to the hillside below while the rest of the train plunged 60 feet into the South Branch of the Raritan River; the northern span remained intact. Engineer Daniel Bryant, fireman John McGran, middle brakeman Frank McEvoy, conductor John Bangham, and rear brakeman August Gess all escaped by jumping clear, but head brakeman Henry Haltiman of Port Oram, age 26, was on top of the fifth freight car trying to apply its brakes and rode the car to his death beneath the twisted wreckage, the only fatality in the history of the High Bridge Branch. His body was recovered the following morning shortly before noon, and his watch had stopped at 10:05 A.M. Afterward, the railroad quickly cleared the wreckage and restored service, tying the locomotive to nearby trees, jacking it up, and building an earthen support beneath it to return it to track level; when debris was removed from the rocky gorge and the river, both bridge and train were found to be a total loss. Hundreds of curiosity seekers came to the site for several days, and six days later trains began using a new temporary bridge. A new steel bridge replaced the temporary wooden structure in 1891, and in 1931 it was strengthened for larger and heavier locomotives; that bridge still stands. Locomotive No. 112 was repaired and returned to service, but because this was its third serious wreck on the Branch, many railroaders considered it jinxed, and it was transferred to the main line, where it hauled coal trains for the next 17 years before being sold in 1902 to the New York Equipment Company for resale to another railroad.

Photo: Alan Edelson

Photo: Alan Edelson

High Bridge, New Jersey · USA