The Stony Creek Bridge
©2002 Wayne Krewski (SOCAN) All rights reserved.
Stony Creek ran high that eighth day of May, 1930, far below a bridge made of wood.
Six men all working to take down the bridge; a bent at a time to salvage what they could.
One bent to go 'til the south end was finished; they'd call it a day while the center span still stood.
Powder they'd use on the center span section, the timbers were rotten, the decking no good.
Refrain
Four dead, their lives taken. One spared with back broken. Alfie left shaken, to witness provide.
The salvage they'd get wouldn't make up the cost, couldn't change that those men shouldn't ever have died.
The Stony Creek Bridge never gave up her salvage and Alfie never hired out again.
Late in the day, foreman Campbell determined to lower the last bent; too late you'd think.
Campbell sent Alfie to gather the tools and replaced him as point man to tie off the links.
Two men on each rope to lower the bent to the ground while the point man kept everything in sync.
Alf drove the truck off the center span onto the north section and parked on the brink.
Tools in his hand at the back of the truck, Alfie heard a commotion behind him on the bent.
The center span let go and took five men down with it; into Stony Creek, a ninety foot descent.
Joe Harris jumped and grabbed onto the north section; Alfie couldn't reach him in time before he went.
Alfie went down to the gorge in the creek and gave help where he could, tried to prevent lament.
Foreman William Campbell lay dead in the creek, killed by the bridge he'd built eighteen years before.
On top of Bill Campbell Joe Harris lay dead, a wife and five children waiting at his door.
Thomas O'Brien lay dead , Alexander Armstrong lived but his back was never restored.
John Persian up on the rock with his leg gone; Alfie's tourniquet gave him half a day more.
On 5 May 1930, 6 men were working to dismantle the old Stony Creek bridge
(also called the Red Bridge), which had been
condemned because the timbers on the center span had started to rot around the bolts to the point where the bolts were in danger of pulling
through. The bents (the long upright timbers) were on 16 foot centers. They would remove all the 2 x 6 decking (you can see one
piece sticking out in the photo) except for one piece, and then Alfie Albo would walk out on that piece twice to tie two ropes,
each 225 feet long, to the bent. Then they would remove the last piece of decking and lower the bent to the ground so it could
be salvaged. After 5 days they had one
more bent to go to finish the south section. They would then use powder on the center span, since it was condemned. It was about
3:45, only about 15 minutes away from quitting time, but Bill Campbell, the foreman (who ironically had built the bridge 18 years
before) wanted to get the last bent down. So he sent Alfie to gather the tools and took his place in the operation. Alfie had just
moved the truck off the center section onto the north section (which is the structure left standing in the photo on the left, taken the next
morning). He had parked just a few feet from the edge that you see in the photo, had picked up some tools off the center span,
and was loading them into the back of the truck, when the bolts pulled loose and the center span went, taking the other 5 men
with it. Joe Harris jumped and grabbed onto the north section, but Alfie couldn't reach him in time. Bill Campbell, Joe Harris,
and Thomas O'Brien all lay dead in the creek in the bottom of the gorge (the dark spot you see under the rubble near the bottom
of the picture). John Persian was up on the rock with one leg gone. Alfie put a tourniquet on him, but he died the next morning.
Alexander Armstrong was down under the rubble in a cavity with a broken back. He survived, but his back was never completely restored.
Alfie saw him again one day in the 60s and he was still pretty crippled up and spent a lot of time in hospitals in Vancouver.
Alfie swore he'd never work for anyone else again, and he never did. He bought into a garage in town and worked for himself.
Before dismantling the Red Bridge they built a new grade that went down to the creek further upstream so they didn't need all
the elevation. The photo in the center was taken in June of 1942 by Jack McDonald. He would have been standing just upstream
from where the Red Bridge had been when he took it.That's Berva standing with the horses. You can see the spring freshet running
right over top of it, about the same time of year as the tragedy in 1930 (the Red Bridge went right over top of a deep narrow
gorge which would have been full at that time of year).
It was finally washed away in the spring of 1997 after all that snow we had that year.
In 2004 I took Alfie back there. He hadn't been there since the accident in 1930. In the
photo on the right he's leaning on the remains of the north abutment. It's all that's left of the structure today.
. The whole story by Alfie
himself is on the CD
