Worker Plunges into Spokane Falls
A carpenter at work on the new Post Street bridge loses his footing and is swept to his death before a crowd of witnesses.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
John Horton, a carpenter at work on the new Post Street bridge, fell into the Spokane River above the main falls this afternoon and was swept down to death. He made a gallant fight for life, cheered by 400 persons on the shore and bridges, but it was hopeless. The swift current pulled him into the cataract, and there he was quickly pounded to death. His body has not been recovered.
“He made a gallant fight for life, cheered by 400 persons on the shore and bridges, but it was hopeless.”
Spokane Falls remains the dramatic heart of the city, and the history of construction accidents around the river's treacherous cataract echoes the city's rapid, often perilous, industrial expansion. Today's public safety standards are built on the grim lessons of nineteenth-century infrastructure projects.
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