[ Post a Response | RRHX - Michigan Railroad History ]
Posted by Peter Ford
on 11/7/2009, 11:32 am, in reply to "GR&I wreck"
67.160.164.53
This is an image from the great log jam of 1883. If it was at the MS bridge, that would be at the LS&MS bridge just south of GR on the Grand River. There are references to the log jam in Lydens The Story of Grand Rapids and Olsen's A Grand Rapids Sampler. There is also a web reprint of an article in Leslie's Illustrated monthly here: Leslie's Log Jam Artcle
An estimated 50 million board feet of logs broke loose from a boom north of Grand Rapids, and were held at the DGH&M (later GTW) bridge, at the north end of Grand Rapids. Eventually they broke through, rushing downstream through GR, taking out the railroad bridges. Interestingly, the street bridges survived. Seems like the LS&MS bridge held things back for a while.
If anyone knows a more sober account of this incident, I would be happy to read it.
Cheers,
Peter
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