The following is the testimony of some of the more important witnesses before the Coroner’s Jury. It is taken from the short hand report made at the time, but abridged as much as possible.

MR. A.L. ROGERS TESTIFIES:

I was foreman of the raising of the bridge; superintended the screwing of nuts to bring the strain upon the vertical rods; Amasa Stone examined it and said my part of the work was well done; after knocking out the blocks, the bridge settled six inches; it settled gradually as we put in thinner blocks and took them out to put in still thinner ones; it was not in use during this time; Mr. Stone then decided to reconstruct the bridge, by changing the position of certain irons and braces; the bridge was constructed after this design, with one exception; the struts running from the bottom cord to the middle of the first pair of braces were not put in till afterward; a change was made in the arrangement of the upper cords, which were shortened; after these changes Mr. Stone examined it without taking out the blocks, and pronounced it good; the false work remained in position from October, 1865, to November, 1866.

Cross-examined—When the bridge was first put up, it settled, and I made the remark that if it kept on, it would go into the creek; perhaps I told it to half a dozen others; said it was not Mr. Collins’ bridge, but Mr. Stone’s; said the bridge had cost a great deal of money, but don’t recollect saying it would cost the company a great deal more; was discouraged because the bridge acted so, and that I couldn’t see how to remedy it; remember all this was before the modifications were made; Mr. Congdon was with Mr. Stone when the bridge was examined; the plan of changing the braces was then adopted.

Mr. Albert Congdon, testified as follows: At the time of the construction of this bridge I was employed by the Lake Shore Road as master machinist; knew something about the construction of this bridge, as I had charge of the work in making the bridge; found a lack of material to fill the place for which it was designed; told Mr. Thompson about it, and he wanted to know if he had better let Mr. Stone know it; told him he had better; a short time afterward I was told to take the plans and finish the construction of the bridge as I thought it should be done; do not know how far the work had progressed at the time I assumed control; the braces were not marked so as to designate the position they were to occupy; never calculated the strength of the tension of compression members; did not say much to Mr. Tomlinson or any other man about the bridge, as I did not consider myself a competent bridge man; from the time of Mr. Tomlinson leaving, I had the management of constructing the bridge; Mr. Rogers told me that Mr. Stone had given him orders to erect it, but he did not know how; I asked him why he did not go and tell Mr. Stone so, and he said that he did not like to; I then told him as much as I knew.

Testimony of the man who drew the plans for the Ashtabula bridge.

Joseph Tomlinson is sworn. Resides in Ottawa, Ont. Is General Superintendent of Lighthouses in the employ of the Canadian Government. Was engaged in bridge-building from 1840 to 1870. He made the drawings for the iron Howe truss bridge over Ashtabula Creek—the one which had lately fallen. He did this under instructions from Mr. Stone. He never approved of a wrought-iron Howe truss over a large span. It makes an unnecessarily heavy bridge, and all the strain accumulates at the end braces. Notwithstanding its weight, it would have been a strong, durable bridge had the main braces been sufficiently strong. They were not made as large as designed, and it was his intention that they should be strengthened, but his connection with the Company was severed on account of a difference that arose between himself and Mr. Stone concerning the bridge.

Mr. A. Gottlieb, engineer of the Keystone Bridge Company, at Pittsburg, Pa., was next called. He testified as follows:

When the wrecked bridge was constructed, the building of iron truss bridges was in its childhood, compared with the progress made since that time.

The first objectionable point in the bridge, therefore, was the unnecessarily great dead weight; the second, the lack of sufficient section in the upper cord; also the manner in which the beams forming said cord were bound together, which brought much more strain on some of them than on others.

I have made a careful examination of the wrecked bridge as it lay at the bottom of the river, and also of the map of the bridge as made by Mr. Tomlinson, and I think that I have obtained a very good idea of the construction of the wrecked bridge. I do not think that the Howe truss pattern is very well adapted to a heavy iron bridge. During my examination I did not see anything in the plan or construction of the bridge that would lead me to think that the extremes of heat or cold would injure it. I never knew of any other wrought iron bridge constructed on the Howe truss pattern.

Before the committee appointed by the Legislature of Ohio, the following testimony was also given by Mr. Amasa Stone, the former President of the Road:

Mr. Stone swore that he designed the bridge, but only superintended the drawing of the plan, while the details of construction were given into the hands of Mr. Albert Congdon, who was supervised by Mr. Joseph Tomlinson.

I have never constructed any other Howe truss bridge with wrought-iron braces, and know of no other anywhere in the country. When Mr. Rogers made the mistake of putting in the braces it was not negligence in permitting him to continue the superintendence of the erection of the bridge, for there was no other particular in which he could have made a mistake. It was not even unwise to permit him to continue. When the bridge was changed in correcting the mistake there were no more braces inserted.

Chas. Collins, the engineer of the road, testified before the same committee, as follows:

About the time the bridge was built, my duties were so heavy I was relieved from looking after the bridge. I never mentioned to any one that the bridge was not mine and that I did not want anything to do with it, since it was placed under the charge of a bridge-man; I thought it out of place for me to say anything about it. I never knew of another bridge being built of wrought iron on this plan. I think the bridge was rather an experiment.