Thirty people die and hundreds more suffer injuries when a train plunges into the Gasconade River after a bridge collapse. It marked the first such major disaster in U.S. history, according to the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office. This photo shows a picture of the Gasconade River around 1968. The pictured bridge is not the collapsed structure. Read more about the whole area and to see a photo of the Gasconade trestle bridge today here.
Photo credit: Historic American Engineering Record, C., Hermann Commercial Club, Breuer, R. A., National Toll Bridge Company, Sverdrup, L., Gasconade Bridge Company […] Austin, D., Schmitz, S., photographer. (1968) Gasconade Bridge, Spanning Gasconade River at State Route 100, Gasconade, Gasconade County, MO. Gasconade Gasconade County Missouri, 1968. Wegman-French, L., trans Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mo1268/, https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.mo1268.photos/?sp=15.
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Train Collision
On November 23, 1916 a Frisco passenger train collided head-on with a Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific freight train near Una, Missouri. Dozens of people injured.
November 18, 1818
This date in Missouri history. A group of citizens calling themselves the Smithton Company purchased from the government the land which is now Columbia, MO.
November 5, 1855
This date in Missouri history: It was a day of prayer and fasting to honor the victims of the Gasconade River train disaster of four days ago. Thirty-four people died and many were injured when the bridge collapsed and took the dignitaries into the swollen river.