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

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proat'h to tlic stone hri(l;;e. Stoiu' Creek lowereLl r.ipiilly. in its haste to aid
tlie ernel \\Lirk yet to he ilone in order to fuliil the task of the revengetul element.
Thns a 111 1st of unwiUiii'g x'oya'gers pirfcnneil tlie jonrne)' three times,
i;oing down to tlie t'oint with the first wa\e. h.ick with the counter-current
and itluininL;^ with the reCedin.L; torrent, which deposited jiortions of its hniden
at inter\als aloiii:; its track. In this way lumses th.it started from the
upper end of Johnstown stranded two or three miles uji Stony Creek. Kernville
receiving not onl_\- its o\\ n wieckage but a ,L;iiod deal lielonging to the
adjacent boroughs. Men. \\eimen and children, holding on witli a despairing
grip to wrecked matter, cried in \ain for succor. When the ciu'rent changed
houses, stables, workslmps and e\erything portable were twisting, cracking
and clashim;. freighted with a multitude of floaters. People on Prospect Hill
saw friends and neighbors d.-ished or drifted to their doom, out of reach of
mortal help. Perchance some would get near enough the bank to escape, but
these were the exceptions. Si.xteeii hundred buildings of ever}' sort and size,
besides cars, bridL;es, trees and an incalculable amount of material collected on
the route, lieaped upon tweh e acres and thickly sow n with dead bodies and
animal carcasses, presented a mass of wreckage above the bridge so terrible
in its nature and extent that no colors could paint it too \ividl}-.
For eight or ten miiintes- -watches were not consulted in the wild tumult
the water was held in the an^le f. 'rnied by the bridge and the bluff across Stcmy
Creek. Each second heaped it higher and stdl higher, as if piling Ossa on
Pelion, until it climbed o\frlhe bridge and the approach, which served as tile
breast of the vast reservoir that was to repeat the scenes of an hour before
at Lake Concmaugh. The emliankment wore away in a twinkling, and great
slices of the wreck pitched headlong into the yards of the Cambria Iron Works.
The upper end of the rail mill w as torn out. Boilers ^vrig^led from their brick
arches and engines executed strange g\rations. Stones and earth showered
acres of the yard to the depth of ten or twelve feet, covi-ring a train of freigh.t
cars as completeh- as the eartlii|u. ike buried Lisbon. Houses that had been
dela\ed above the bridge made up for lost time b\- eiashing through the widening
chasm at breakneck speed. Those on Iron street, Millville, next to the
embankment, were the first to go. The swift current had not harmed tliem
irreparablv until the waters gorged and chcckeil and backed up from the
bridge. The\- mo\ed otl b_\' wholesale when the embankment yielded. The
inmates of many had been taken in the forenoon to Prospe^.t, where they
watched the tragedv that roiiLied them of homes and chattels, relati\es and
neighbors at a breath. Fifteen persons were thrown ujion the ro(.if of the rail
mill, to be swept ort the next instant by a whirlnig m'riss of timbers. On tlie
other shore was Cambria Borough its streets a pond since midnight. For this
cause work was generally suspended, and most iit the citizens staged indoors.
From the river-bod, which the water actually ripped up in shifting the stream