Haunting reminders of a derailment said to still linger over a century later.

[JCagle]

I remeber hearing about this tale while I was in the 8th grade and became pretty good friends with the history teacher, who was well versed in the history of the area. I had kind of forgotten about it untill last week when I passed the bridge while visiting one of my company's clients at a job near by. I'm in the process of hunting down all of the lesser known facts on the accident, as it made national headlines.

Early on the morning of August 27, 1891 passengers boarded Southern Railway number 9 in Salisbury, NC to head west down what is known as the S Line towards Asheville, NC. The train departed and one can imagine that many of the passengers soon nodded off to the monotinous melody of the rails. The train passed westward through Statesville cutting through the night with the headlight cutting through the blackness and the scream of the whistle breaking the silence of the night for those along the line.

About 3 am the peaceful ride was upset by the lunge of the train and the gnarling of metal as the train lept off the Bostian Bridge,  just west of Statesville. The train fell over sixty feet to the creekbed below where it was soon joined by the coaches. Just as soon as the noise of the wreck had died down the moans and screams of the passengers cut through the still night air.

That night was a deadly night, as twenty-two people were killed in or due to injuries sustained in the wreck, that to this day is known as the deadliest train wreck in North Carolina history. One of those killed was the baggage master H. K. Linster. Linster had just received a golden watch for his years of service and was getting close to retirement. He was very proud of that watch, and showed it to everyone. Nearly everyone on the train required medical treatment, and many of the injured were taken to local churches which were set up as makeshift hospitals.

Many people tell of being near the bridge in the early morning hours of August, 27 and seeing the headlight glow and hearing the whistle's cry just before the crashing sound of the  wreck. After the wreck is heard the cries and moans of the survivors can be heard. There are even reports of seeing Mr. Linster as he approaches and asks what time it is with his golden watch in hand attempting to set the time correctly.  Just as soon as all of this appears it is gone.

The bridge, built in 1858,  is still there to this day, and is one of the few stuccoed bridges left in the south. The Norfolk Southern S line still runs across it and there is a bridge by the same design in the town of Salisbury.