From the Los Angeles Examiner, March 14, 1905

STORM

Ships Wrecked, Piers Swept Away and Bridges Torn Down

Modern Venice’s Shore Attractions Are Beaten Down — Boyle Heights Church Struck by Lightning

The largest losses in the immediate vicinity of Los Angeles were as follows:

  • Wreck of pier and pavilions, Venice of America = $50,000
  • Damage to Ocean Park, Santa Monica and Port Los Angeles piers = $50,000
  • Partial destruction of Playa del Rey pier = $15,000
  • Santa Fe bridge and railroad losses = $20,000
  • Total loss of Seventh Street bridge = $12,000
  • Loss of boats wrecked at Long Beach = $10,500
  • Damage to government breakwater at San Pedro = $12,000
  • Damage to wireless station and other property = $6,850
  • Damage to $100,000 pleasure pier, Long Beach = $5,000
  • Weakening of Ninth Street bridge = $5,000
  • Boyle Heights Church and Home Telephone Co. (lightning and water) = $3,500
  • Other losses by lightning = 1,500
  • Cottage at Santa Monica washed into gulch = $500.

TOTAL = $191,450

Damage sustained by individual property owners, telephone and telegraph companies, street railways and small miscellaneous losses undoubtedly will reach the total of a half million of dollars in Southern California.

THE DEAD
  • Two men, identity unknown.
THE INJURED
  • Mrs. Clara Webb, 2126 East Seventh St.; back of head and back hurt. She may not survive.
  • Jacob Baughman, 626 Stephenson Ave.; left shoulder broken, right leg cut and numerous abrasions.
  • D.H. Bragg, colored, 2427 Enterprise St.; right elbow cut.
  • Alonzo Thomas, 2 Julian Place; head, left hand and both knees cut.

Los Angeles as a big city, stretching from the mountains to the sea, experienced the worst storm in its history yesterday [Monday] and Sunday.

Other big storms have visited Los Angeles in the memory of white inhabitants, but they found no such opportunity to do damage in Los Angeles. The property was not here to be damaged. . . .

The destruction of the Seventh Street bridge over the Los Angeles River was the worst disaster. Two lives were lost there and several persons were severely injured.

The demolition of the stupendous structures being reared at Venice of America was perhaps the greatest single property loss. The furious sea all but wiped out the ocean side of this new pleasure resort on the coast, and in this one stroke swept away $50,000 worth of labor and material.

 

Heavy Damage to Ocean Piers

The defencelessness of the pleasure piers along the coast, which represent a total investment of more than $250,000, was shown by this storm. Not one escaped serious damage. There are but shattered fragments of the piers that have accommodated thousands in the bay that stretches from Santa Monica to Redondo. . . .

All wires to the north are down, and telegraphic communication with the outide world hung on a few wires to the east. The destruction of the wireless telegraph station at San Pedro . . . cut off communication with Catalina Island. . . .

The city’s bridge at Seventh Street went down yesterday. . . .

The cause of it all was a freshet in the Los Angeles River, which which raised the stream to the almost unprecedented height of eight feet. At that[, though,] the full width of the bed of the stream was not full of water, and at no time was the level of the river within fifteen feet of the floor of the bridge.

Yet even this volume of water was sufficient to undermine the

 
great concrete pier placed amidstream, and with its failure the bridge also failed.

These questions are being asked:

  1. What was the nature of the foundation, placed only a year ago at a cost of $6,570, that it could not withstand a stream which, though unusual, was not of a character to be unexpected?
  2. Were approved engineering principles followed when the piers were laid?
  3. Or were the city authorities lulled into a contempt of peril from the ordinarily innocuous Los Angeles [River]?
  4. Was the contracting work defective or scamped that it gave way under such circumstances?
Huge Structure Goes to Pieces

. . . There were congregated on the bridge about a score of people, attracted by the unusual sight of the Los Angeles River in its torrential mood. . . .

As they gazed, the river was doing its deadly work beneath them, eating its way under the concrete pier . . . . When the crucial moment came, the great mass of concrete toppled over and lay on its side . . . . At the same instant, there was a cracking of timbers and a swaying, and the eastern span, directly over where the river flowed deepest, . . . dropped into the flood . . . .

All the evidence shows that two young men, lingering on their way to work on the eastern side, met their death at this time. . . .

Willing hands gave themselves to the work of rescue at once. At engine house No. 17, some two blocks away, the crash of the disaster was distinctly heard and its character at once surmised.

Captain Balzar and Fireman Harry Griffin hurried to the broken bridge. There, assisted by others who had gathered, they tore away the debris that held Baughman, Carmichael and Mrs. Webb and removed them to a place of safety. . . .
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