I Think We Need an Ed Delahanty Appreciation Post

[jingram058]

Imagine being drunk to beat the band. So drunk you don't know which end is up, even pulling a woman out of her sleeping berth by her ankles. Finally, the conductor has no choice but to put you off the train...right at Niagara Falls, in the middle of the night, in total darkness. You stagger off toward lights in the distance, on the other side of the bridge. You can hear the rushing torrent. You are met by some guy on the bridge with a lantern in your face, as you have somehow made it onto the bridge without falling through the cross ties and support beams. You struggle with the man, a watchman or bridge tender, who is trying to get through to you to get you off the bridge. You fall through, and drop into ice-cold water. It takes your breath away. You instantly sober up and struggle. But the current is too fast. You are inhaling water...

Like a bad horror movie. Only it's real. Actually happened.

Why couldn't he have been put off the train ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BRIDGE, only three-quarters of a mile further?

[pkaufman]

The International Bridge (a train only bridge) connects Buffalo with Fort Erie, Ontario. Delahanty would indeed have been able to see the lights of Buffalo from the Canadian side of the bridge, some electric light and some candlelight. Niagara Falls is approximately 15 miles down river from the point where the International Bridge crosses the river. The current carries bodies down river until they go over the Falls. His body was found several days later at Niagara Falls, NY, thus his place of death was ruled to be at Niagara Falls.