having carried the noise in an opposite direction. It was not until
morning that they learned of the destruction of their work and the extent
of the disaster.

One hundred and sixty-nine feet of the superstructure, weighing 450 tons,
had been precipitated from a height of nearly 200 feet and been broken up
on the rock at 45 feet from the axis of the pier. The breakage had
occurred upon the abutment, and the part 195 feet in length that remained
in position in the cutting was strongly wedged between walls of rock,
which had kept this portion in place and prevented its following the other
into the ravine.

Upon the pier there remained a few broken pieces and a portion of the
apparatus used in swinging the superstructure into place.

Below, in the debris of the superstructure, the up-stream girder lay upon
the down-stream one. The annexed engraving shows the state of things after
the disaster.

Several opinions have been expressed in regard to the cause of the fall.
According to one of these, the superstructure was suddenly wrenched from
its bearings upon the pier, and was horizontally displaced by an impulse
such that, when it touched the masonry, its up-stream girder struck the
center of the pier, upon which it divided, while the down-stream one was
already in space. The fall would have afterward continued without the
superstructure meeting the face of the pier.

[Illustration: DESTRUCTION OF THE TARDES VIADUCT.]

Upon taking as a basis the horizontal displacement of the superstructure,