The locomotive whistled vigorously; the engineer,
reversing the steam, backed the train for nearly a
mile--retiring, like a jumper, in order to take a longer
leap. Then, with another whistle, he began to move
forward; the train increased its speed, and soon its
rapidity became frightful; a prolonged screech issued
from the locomotive; the piston worked up and down
twenty strokes to the second. They perceived that
the whole train, rushing on at the rate of a hundred
miles an hour, hardly bore upon the rails at all.

And they passed over! It was like a flash. No one
saw the bridge. The train leaped, so to speak, from
one bank to the other, and the engineer could not stop
it until it had gone five miles beyond the station. But
scarcely had the train passed the river, when the
bridge, completely ruined, fell with a crash into the
rapids of Medicine Bow.

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