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
Cuyahoga Falls
News Press Wednesday April 15, 1964
By Ross C.
Durst
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.
To close with a
lighter touch to a somber story, consider this
true incident. A young lad was recently heard to
tell his wide eyed friends, “ I heard my grandpa
say he used to ride a Mountain Lion all the way
to Akron.
End of the Mountain Line, just
south of Vaughn Machinery
Cuyahoga Falls
News Press
Thursday
June 7th, 1962
By Linda
Breen
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.
