![]() The dead bodies, bundled in blankets and gunny sacks, were hauled to the top of the ravine with ropes, then loaded onto express wagons and taken to the city morgue to await identification. Joseph's Hospitals by ambulance, while others were taken by taxicabs. The most seriously injured were immediately transported to the Fanny Paddock and St. Rescuers carried the injured persons up the ravine to the city pumping station, which was being used as an aid station and temporary morgue. While the police closed off the area and controlled the crowds, the fire department coordinated rescue efforts. Doctors and nurses were brought from nearby hospitals to care for the casualties. An ambulance was the first to arrive at the scene and, seeing the pile of twisted wreckage at the bottom of the steep of the ravine, called the Tacoma Police and Fire Departments for help. The crash was heard for blocks and help was quickly summoned. The Independence Day Parade was just forming on the streets when the accident happened. The tracks, for 300 feet up the hill, were strewn with dozens of injured passengers who had escaped the runaway car. The streetcar jumped the tracks, cleared the trestle’s foot-high guard rail and plunged 100 feet to the bottom of the ravine, landing upside down. It was traveling about 30 miles an hour when it arrived at the sharp curve just before the trestle. As the trolley continued to gain speed, passengers on the front and rear platforms and standing running boards started leaping to the ground. ![]() Boehm reset the brakes and applied more sand, but the car was beyond his control. He released the brakes and reversed the motor, but the fuse blew, leaving the car without power. Boehm set the brakes and used sand on the tracks with no effect. On the Delin Street grade, the trucks (wheels) began to slide down the tracks. At the head of the ravine was a large pumping station that sent water into the city’s reservoir. At the bottom of the ravine were several felled trees, which bridged a shallow stream about six feet wide and a foot deep. The trestle had heavy timber guard rails a foot high on either side of the tracks to prevent cars from falling off. ![]() Near the bottom of the grade at S 26th Street, there was a dangerous left curve onto the “C” Street Trestle which crossed a 100-foot ravine before entering downtown Tacoma. ![]() Boehm made his last stop at 34th Street, picking up one last passenger, a small boy who climbed onto the cowcatcher, then proceeded down the long, steep Delin Street grade. The car was jammed to over capacity, with passengers crowded onto both front and rear platforms and standing on the running boards, clinging to the outside railings. It was estimated that 50,000 people would attend the big event, ushering in the new decade of 1900. The trolley had been switched from the Point Defiance Line to the South Tacoma Line, on which the accident occurred, as an extra car transporting people to the huge Independence Day parade in downtown Tacoma. It had been drizzling rain and the tracks were wet. 116, owned by the Tacoma Railway and Power Company, left the South Tacoma at about 8:00 a.m. This is one of the worst and most appalling streetcar accidents in Washington state history. After the accident is attended to, the huge Fourth of July celebration to usher in the new decade of 1900 continues. The crash is heard for blocks and help arrives quickly, but the pile of twisted wreckage and the steep sides of the ravine make rescue difficult. On Wednesday morning, July 4, 1900, 43 passengers are killed and many others are injured and maimed when an overcrowded trolley car carrying more than 100 passengers to downtown Tacoma for the Independence Day Parade, looses traction on the Delin Street grade, jumps the tracks on the “C” Street trestle, and plunges 100 feet into a ravine. ![]()
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