The story of Johnstown : its early settlement, rise ... - JohnstownCafe

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THE STORY OF JOHXsroWw:
the mouth of the Concinaugh. Thr steep hank un the west side of Stony
Creek towered four luindred feet, a hei-Iu far too yreat to he oxercome. A
bridge of massive stone arclies. buik h.\- the Peiius_\ h ania Ivaih'oad Company
for a double track, spanned the united streams diagonally twenty rotls below
their junction. The wreckage cloy-ed the low arclies, one woman first passing
under them on a heap of :;tv.it. and die water had no outlet. The oth.er
two wave= joined the th:r.l and the \\ hole Johnstoun valle_\ became a gigantic
whirlpool. The brid-e was immovable, although severelv tested b\ water and
debris piled twent\-hve to tiftv feet above the ordinary level. A counter-current
backed up Stony Creek, bearing with it numerous buildings that had come
down tlie Couemaugh a few nieuients before. KernviUe was tearf ulh' scourged,
its citizens and their homes drittmg ott by the hundred. Streets were blockaded
with rubbish and displaced biuldiugs. some of them from East Couemaugh
and W'oodvale. Man>- a promising hfe ended in the heaving waters
or was crusliLd out by the -rinding tiud.ers. which seemed imbued with a
malicious propensity to kill or maim v.h.jever fell in their wav. Tp to Moxliani,
three miles from the raUroad brid-e, the waters ebbed. Then tliev
began to recede, for the baUled whirlpool at the Point had found vent b\ tearing
out a huge chunk of the railroau embankment that formed the eastern ap-