Description: Image of the train involved in the Ashtabula Train Disaster, showing the train at the Ashtabula Railroad Depot and passengers waiting to board. The caption reads: "The Doomed Train, as it left Ashtabula, a few minutes before the Wreck." This illustration comes from a pamphlet titled "The terrible Ashtabula rail road calamity, on the evening of Dec. 29th, 1876, together with a few incidents of P.P. Bliss, the immortal singer," published by A.S. Benner, 1877. While this illustration is identified as the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway cars that plunged into the Ashtabula River, it does not appear to depict the actual train involved in the disaster or the Ashtabula LS&MS station at the time of the incident On December 29, 1876, a Howe truss bridge near Ashtabula, Ohio, collapsed while a train with three passenger cars was crossing it. The train and its passengers plunged sixty feet into a ravine and creek, and the lamps and stoves used to light and heat the train cars quickly ignited the wreckage. Ninety-two people died either in the accident or as a result of their injuries, and more than sixty of the surviving passengers were injured. Railroad accidents were commonplace during the late nineteenth century, due in part to tracks built quickly and cheaply by companies hoping to make tremendous profits. Railroad companies built thousands of miles of track in Ohio during the late nineteenth century, providing more opportunity for accidents to occur. Even after the Ashtabula Bridge collapse, the Howe truss bridge remained popular, primarily due to its relatively cheap cost. Still, railroad companies began to feel pressure from their customers to provide a safer means of travel. By 1888, more than two thousand iron bridges existed in Ohio. The state had fewer than nine hundred wooden bridges still in use at this time. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07759
Subjects: Transportation--Ohio--History; Trains; Railroad accidents; Railroads--Ohio; Bridges--Ohio;
Places: Ashtabula (Ohio); Ashtabula County (Ohio);
 

Description: 1877 engineering drawing of the Ashtabula Bridge, built by the Cleveland and Erie Railroad Company in 1863. This drawing shows the bridge, designed by Amasa Stone, that was involved with the infamous Ashtabula Train Disaster of 1876. On December 29, 1876, a Howe truss bridge near Ashtabula, Ohio, collapsed while a train with three passenger cars was crossing it. The train and its passengers plunged sixty feet into a ravine and creek, and the lamps and stoves used to light and heat the train cars quickly ignited the wreckage. Ninety-two people died either in the accident or as a result of their injuries, and more than sixty of the surviving passengers were injured. Railroad accidents were commonplace during the late nineteenth century, due in part to tracks built quickly and cheaply by companies hoping to make tremendous profits. Railroad companies built thousands of miles of track in Ohio during the late nineteenth century, providing more opportunity for accidents to occur. Even after the Ashtabula Bridge collapse, the Howe truss bridge remained popular, primarily due to its relatively cheap cost. Still, railroad companies began to feel pressure from their customers to provide a safer means of travel. By 1888, more than two thousand iron bridges existed in Ohio. The state had fewer than nine hundred wooden bridges still in use at this time. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: OVS4265_ashtabulabridge
Subjects: Bridges--Ohio; Railroads--Buildings and structures; Ohio Economy--Architecture and Engineering; Railroad accidents;
Places: Ashtabula (Ohio); Ashtabula County (Ohio);
 

Description: Illustration of a train on the Ashtabula Bridge from "The Ashtabula Disaster" by Stephen D. Peet, 1877. On December 29, 1876, a Howe truss bridge near Ashtabula, Ohio, collapsed while a train with three passenger cars was crossing it. The train and its passengers plunged sixty feet into a ravine and creek, and the lamps and stoves used to light and heat the train cars quickly ignited the wreckage. Ninety-two people died either in the accident or as a result of their injuries, and more than sixty of the surviving passengers were injured. Railroad accidents were commonplace during the late nineteenth century, due in part to tracks built quickly and cheaply by companies hoping to make tremendous profits. Railroad companies built thousands of miles of track in Ohio during the late nineteenth century, providing more opportunity for accidents to occur. Even after the Ashtabula Bridge collapse, the Howe truss bridge remained popular, primarily due to its relatively cheap cost. Still, railroad companies began to feel pressure from their customers to provide a safer means of travel. By 1888, more than two thousand iron bridges existed in Ohio. The state had fewer than nine hundred wooden bridges still in use at this time. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: 977_1341_P347_c2_013
Subjects: Transportation--Ohio--History; Trains; Railroad accidents; Railroads--Ohio; Bridges--Ohio;
Places: Ashtabula (Ohio); Ashtabula County (Ohio)
 

Description: This line graph compares the average days of loss for one-off accidents occuring between 1914 and 1917 at the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AC2_YHCIL_MSS0140_B01F04_004
Subjects: Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company; Accident rates; Steel industry and trade--Accidents; Steel industry--1910-1930
 

Description: This bar graph compares the rate of accidents annually per 100 employees and average days lost per accident between 1913 and 1917. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AC2_YHCIL_MSS0140_B01F04_002
Subjects: Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company; Accident rates; Steel industry and trade--Accidents; Steel industry--1910-1930
 

Description: This photograph depicts an accident at a coke plant boiler house. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AC2_YHCIL_MSS0140_B04F65_011
Subjects: Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company; Steel industry and trade--Accidents; Coke plants
 

Description: This photograph depicts an accident scene near a blast furnace. Blast furnaces are used to smelt iron ore with coke to produce pig iron. This is the first step of steel production that occurs at mills. Air is forced into the bottom of the furnace, supporting the combustion, and giving the furnace its "blast" name. This photograph belongs to the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Audiovisual Archives, so its subject is likely located at a Youngstown company plant. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AC2_YHCIL_MSS0140_B02F22_016
Subjects: Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company; Steel industry and trade--Accidents; Blast furnaces; Safety; Ohio--Labor
 

Description: This photograph depicts a coal hammer used in a coke plant. The caption below reads, "NO 2-HAMMER SHOWN IN NO 1 AFTER 55 DAYS SERVICE IN NO 2 MILL - 68915 TONS OF COAL PULVERIZED". View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AC2_YHCIL_MSS0140_B04F66_001
Subjects: Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company; Steel industry and trade--Accidents; Coke plants
 

Description: This photograph depicts a coal hammer used in a coke plant. The caption below reads, "NO 6 - HAMMER SHOWN IN NO 5 AFTER STELLITE COATING HAS BEEN APPLIED". View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AC2_YHCIL_MSS0140_B04F66_002
Subjects: Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company; Steel industry and trade--Accidents; Coke plants
 

Description: Harry C. Pepon at Childress Air Force Base in Texas on the day that he received his bombardier wings, July 22, 1944. Pepon was born in Hilliard, Ohio, and served as a bombardier on a B-17 crew stationed in Italy during World War II. His plane was hit by enemy fire on its first mission to bomb a German refinery. The plane went missing and the crew was presumed dead. After the war, debris from the plane was found in Yugoslavia. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07527
Subjects: Soldiers--Ohio; Ohio History--Military Ohio; World War, 1939-1945 - Ohio; Air pilots; Aircraft accidents
Places: Childress Air Force Base (Texas)
 

Description: Harry Pepon (right) and an unidentified member of his crew in Italy, 1944. Pepon was born in Hilliard, Ohio, and served as a bombardier on a B-17 crew stationed in Italy during World War II. His plane was hit by enemy fire on its first mission to bomb a German refinery. The plane went missing and the crew was presumed dead. After the war, debris from the plane was found in Yugoslavia. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07528
Subjects: Soldiers--Ohio; Ohio History--Military Ohio; Aircraft accidents; Air pilots; Military uniforms; World War, 1939-1945 - Ohio
Places: Italy
 

Description: This picture depicts tanker cars on railroad tracks with attached and unattached hoses at Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company's Brier Hill works. This is the scene of a tanker accident. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AC2_YHCIL_MSS0140_B01F01_005
Subjects: Steel industry--1930-1940; Steel industry and trade--Accidents; Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. Brier Hill works; Steel Industry-- Youngstown (Ohio)
Places: Youngstown (Ohio); Mahoning County (Ohio)