The Bridge on the River Black – June 1925

Remember the great movie The Bridge on the River Kwai? Quite simply, it was all about a mission to blow up an important bridge. In the end, the bridge was destroyed.

Well, Lorain almost had its own version of the film, one hundred years ago in June 1925. The bridge in question: the 'new' B&O Railroad bridge at the mouth of the Black River that replaced the one destroyed by the 1924 Lorain Tornado. That's it in the vintage postcard above.

It had just been completed and ready for use in May 1925.

But then a few weeks later, an attempt was made to blow it up. Here's the front page of the June 10, 1925 Lorain Journal with the story.

As the lead article notes, "Buildings and homes within a radius of a mile were rocked at 10:45 p.m. Tuesday when an attempt was made to blow up the new half-million dollar B. and O. ore bridge at the foot of North Broadway.

"Many Lorainites who heard the blast became panic-stricken and rushed from their homes. Windows in the buildings in the immediate vicinity were broken. There were no casualties.

"Police Chief Theodore Walker said today that his investigation of the blast disclosed that the attempt to wreck the machine is the result of labor troubles which followed the rebuilding of the tornado-damaged ore bridge.

"Had the dynamite been placed in the proper position the entire structure would undoubtedly have been destroyed, Walker said. The charge was put under the support at the west end of the bridge. 

"A woman living at the north end of Washington-av told Police Capt. Hugh Reilly last night that she saw two men get out of a small car a few minutes before the blast. They carried a box a foot square and walked toward the ore dock. They were gone about 10 minutes when they returned in a hurry and speeded off, she said.

The next day, the June 11, 1925 front page announced that a man was being questioned about the dynamiting of the bridge.

As the article notes, the man being questioned was "formerly employed by the Keyl and Patterson Co., of Pittsburgh, the firm which rebuilt the tornado-wrecked ore bridge.

"He was fired shortly before it was completed three weeks ago."

Subsequent news coverage of the story in the Journal reported that a police search centering in Cleveland and Erie, Pa., took place in an attempt to arrest the two men suspected of dynamiting the bridge. It doesn't appear that they were ever located. And the one suspect that was being questioned in Lorain was never charged either.

The bridge, however, did get blown up eventually, in Dec. 1946.