That same year a railroad bridge over Ashtabula Gorge on Stone’s Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway collapsed. Final counts varied, but roughly 92 of the 159 passengers in a train passing over the bridge died. Stone had chosen the design against his engineer’s advice; the I-beams that buckled came from Stone’s Cleveland Rolling Mill, and the bridge had not been regularly inspected. The stoves in the cars were not self-extinguishing, as required by state law, and many of the passengers burned to death.
