On June 11, 1918, Tuesday afternoon about 4:00, an event which brought to a close the first trolley road “called the mountain line” to operate from Akron to Cuyahoga Falls. This line, greatly shortened, continued for many years but was never the same, as the connection with downtown Cuyahoga Falls was severed.

1893-1894  The Akron & Cuyahoga Rapid Transit Co. built the road later called the mountain line.  This road ran from Front Street in the Falls across the Glen Bridge, paralleled by the steam roads to Bettes Corners, then by private right of way to Furnace St. and on to Main St. in Akron.

1894-1895  Akron & Cuyahoga Falls Rapid Transit Co. built a line to Barberton.

1895-1896  Extended their line east to Kent. Same year built a short line to Randolph park, along the east side of Silver Lake.

Open sided summer car of the Akron Cuyahoga Falls Rapid Transit known as the Mountain Line. Picture taken in 1905
 

ARTICLES

The Tragic End of the Mountain Line

For two decades the residents of Cuyahoga Falls had the choice of riding two lines to Akron. In many respects, the Mountain Line was the more thrilling, with its many, many bridges and trestles and its wild scenery.

In the spring and summer of 1918, we lived briefly in the Falls.  On the afternoon of June 11, 1918, for some reason I had returned home early, riding the Mountain Line.  Later in the afternoon, we heard that a streetcar on the Mountain Line had gone over the bridge and fallen into the Gorge.  It was the next car after mine.

We had no radio or telephone and it was some time before we learned the details.  The track made a sharp turn onto the east end of the bridge.  The car failed to make the turn and went off the north side of the bridge, carrying part of the railing with it.  The structural part of the bridge received little damage.  The car landed in the river.  It was so badly smashed that no attempt  that no attempt was ever made to salvage it.  No doubt parts of it could still be found in the Gorge 46 years later.

Fortunately, there were few passengers at that early hour The conductor and 3 passengers were killed.  Miraculously, the motorman and one passenger survived, after a fall of nearly 100 feet.  Two of the victims were from Cuyahoga Falls, C.C. Hoye and Emory Prior. Those escaping were Motorman Leroy Bessemaer and passenger Henry VanLoosen both of the Falls.

The Falls City Council promptly cancelled the Company’s franchise and it never resumed operation. About the only trace of its existence can be seen on Furnace Street.  A strip down the middle of the pavement shows where the tracks were ripped out.

End of the Mountain Line, just south of Vaughn Machinery

Reviews Accident of Falls Trolley

It was early evening, June 11, 1918, around dinner time, when the Mountain Line Trolley Car made its usual run around the sharp Water Street curve and across Glen Bridge toward Front Street. But it never crossed the bridge.  It plunged instead 98 feet to the river below, killing four of its six occupants.

It is believed that the fatal flaw which caused this tragedy was an accumulation of cinders in the tracks.

For three hours after the accident, a gang of men including the Falls Fire Department worked frantically to get to the bottom of the pile of wreckage, seeking for more victims of the disaster.

The car had apparently turned end on end as it fell and landed nearly upside down.  The roof and sides were crushed by the impact like a eggshell by a hammer.  In fact, the woodwork was so demolished that a small boy could have lifted the remains with ease.

Three large holes were cut into the upturned floor of the car to extricate the victims.

The four dead were identified as Every Pryor, a Cuyahoga Falls business man; C. C. Haye, a Cuyahoga Falls res.; O. D. Gilmore, trolley conductor; and Luzzi Pellegione, a young Akron resident.

The injured were motorman Leroy Bessemer, with a scalp wound and a broken leg; and Henry Van Loosen, a falls machinist, with a possible skull fracture.

The whole town was aghast with horror. Even now, if you look especially hard, when the water is low, you can see the remains of the wreckage below the bridge lodged between the rocks in the river.

This happened June 11, 1918, yet some senior citizens still remember the accident well, and could describe it in detail as though it happened only yesterday.

At time of trolley wreck at Glens Bridge, Zeller Co.'s trucks and crowd

Mountain Line Car Plunges Off Glen Bridge

Four dead Two injured Fear expressed that more passengers might be trapped under floor of car.

This Tuesday afternoon, the 4 o’clock run on the mountain line to the Falls from Akron was late. The car #350 with Leroy Bessemer, motorman and O. D. Gilmore conductor, made a stop on the east side of the Glen Bridge at Prospect St. to let off two persons and then moved on to the bridge at a slow rate of speed. At a point about halfway across, the front trucks left the rail and before motorman Bessemer realized what was happening, the car broke through a section of the wooden floor and the steel railing, and plunged 105 ft into the Cuyahoga river.

This dreadful accident was witnessed by a crew on Akron-Kent & Ravenna car, which was standing directly on the Crossover at Front. St. The conductor on the AK&R car being small of stature, was lowered on a rope, down to the wreck, by several persons who came running up, having heard the terrible crash from some distance off.  I interviewed this crew and the conductor’s story goes something like this:

  “I know, I was the first human being to witness the results of this terrible accident, up close.  As I was being lowered down to the wreck, I could only see two bodies. The up river currents of air made landing difficult on the rocks in the river bottom.  As my main interest was to get aid to the injured, I located the bodies as fast as possible, and had the people on the bridge pull them up.  The only person I believed to be alive, and made a determined effort to save, was Luizzi Pellogione, an Italian lad, who had been thrown clear of the wreckage   into deep water.  His feeble efforts was to no avail as he drowned before i could get help to him.  By this time, men had reached the scene from other places and I was extremely glad to turn this gruesome job over to them.” End of eye witness account.

A side line to the witnesses doings on that day is interesting because, as he was pulled up to the bridge floor he was taken into custody by N. O. T. Officials, and held incommunicado in downtown Akron for 36 hours. Their excuse being they said, “so he could not talk to anyone.”

Strange as it may seem, Leroy Bessemer, motorman, was put in the dead wagon by mistake, as was Henry Van Loosen, a machinist.  Someone noticed movement by Bessemer and called a Doctor’s attention. The Dr. on close examination discovered that both Bessemer and Van Loosen were among the living. They had both sustained broken legs and fractured skulls, but recovered after many months of being hospitalized and lived fairly normal lives for some years after.