#3: Ashtabula, Ohio - 1876

ust nine years after the Angola Horror, another railroad bridge disaster occurred at Ashtabula, Ohio.

The Ashtabula Bridge Disaster of 1876 was similar to Angola in some aspects -- both involved crowded express trains, and ended in high death tolls and devastating scenes in the wreckage.

Ashtabula was different in some key ways, however. Among them: the wreck was photographed, not just sketched by illustrators.

And, at Ashtabula, the wreck was commemorated in several monuments and memorials in the surrounding area.

That never happened at Angola.

Comparisons and Contrasts

Ashtabula's railroad disaster was, by 1876, captured in photographs taken at the wreck site. No similar photographs were taken at Angola in 1867.

Here are some artifacts remaining today from the 1876 wreck at Ashtabula. They are on display at the railroad museum in Conneaut, O.

Ohioans Memoralize Ashtabula Wreck:

Chestnut Grove Cemetery: site of the memorial monument to disaster victims.

Conneaut, O. railroad museum - Ashtabula wreck artifacts.

Near the wreck site at the Ashtabula County Medical Center, there are two displays honoring victims of the wreck who were lifted to the hospital in 1876 for treatment.