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It occurred with such violence and force that it registered on the Dominion Observatory’s seismometer on Carling Avenue. Officials there were quick to point out it wasn’t an earthquake that had caused the bridge to collapse, but rather the other way around.

Photo by City of Ottawa Archives / Ottawa Journal Collection.

City of Ottawa Archives, CA02527

Citizen-UPI staff photo

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Davis, Graham, and those around them, fell more than 15 metres onto piles of wood, but lived. Baird and the foremen that Davis had been with just two minutes earlier were all killed when the concrete slab they were standing on flipped over as the wooden falsework supporting it gave way. They fell 20 metres to their deaths and were buried in the wet cement, concrete, lumber and steel that came crashing down with them.

“They all threw their hands up,” said worker Benoit Caron, 42, who was looking at the roughly 70 workers on the bridge when it gave way. “I don’t know what they were grabbing for. Then they disappeared.

“The top seemed to shift a little bit,” he added, “then — poof, it dropped straight down. The men on top just rode it to the ground.”

The ride wouldn’t have lasted more than a couple of seconds: certainly not long enough for anyone to react. Workman Herve Gratton said, with brutal simplicity: “They didn’t have much time to scream.”

Davis later described it as “like standing on a bucket and having it kicked out from under you.”

Crane operator Paul Tasse, who had been pouring concrete since 7 a.m., saw it all happen from only about three metres away. “I heard a crack and turned around. The piers (concrete columns) seemed to swing west for about a second, then everything stopped and collapsed. I saw blood all over, flying out from everywhere. Everyone was running to the hill to the men. I ran up to the construction shack to call an ambulance. Then I ran back down to help. I helped about 10 to 15 men to safety. Some could walk, some were in shock and had to be carried. Most were carried out on sheets of plywood. The men were crying and screaming and shouting. I watched them dig out three dead men from under the east column.”