On December 29, 1876, the trestle bridge over the Ashtabula River in Ohio collapsed as Train No. 5 of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, known as the Pacific Express, passed over it. Roaring flames engulfed the wreckage, leading to a terrific loss of life.
The train left Buffalo, New York, at 2 p.m. A snowstorm that had already dumped 20 inches of snow was pummeling the region. High winds were piling up huge snow drifts of five or more feet. To power through these drifts, a second locomotive was added onto the train as it left Buffalo.
At 5:01 p.m. it reached Erie, Pennsylvania, about an hour and 16 minutes behind schedule. Minutes are important when talking about train schedules, but what are minutes or even, for that matter, days, years or centuries when you compare them to eternity? Many of the people on the train would be dead before the day was over.
Gliding Into the Destination?
At about 7:30 p.m. the Pacific Express was nearing the Ashtabula Bridge. The two locomotives provided the power to pull the train, consisting of two baggage cars, two day-passenger cars, two express cars, four sleeper cars, and a smoking car. Onboard were 160 passengers, as well as 19 crew members. The cars were lighted and heated by oil lights and stoves. Visibility because of the driving snow was almost non-existent as the train approached the bridge.
With the low visibility, the train engineer could barely see the length of two train cars into the distance. How many people are going through life with low visibility when it comes to looking into their long-range futures? There is either a heaven or hell in the future for each one of us. But how many people never clearly see that far ahead because their hearts are so taken up with life’s responsibilities and pleasures? Have you considered that someday you will have to leave this world and give account to the God who is holy, just and good? Or are you passing through life like someone travelling through a blinding snowstorm, unable to see very far into the future?
Through the falling snow, the train engineer recognized the train was approaching the bridge. He shut off the steam and cut the power to the wheels in order to glide into the station. The station was about 1,000 feet away on the other side of the bridge. The engineer never suspected anything was wrong.
Are you gliding through life without any suspicion of trouble ahead? If you have not come to Christ through repentance and faith, trouble definitely is looming in front of you. Gliding through life like you have nothing to worry about will make you end up in a heap of trouble, because God is a sin-hating God and you are a sinner. The disaster of a lost eternity lies ahead of you and you don’t even know it.
Overconfidence
The Ashtabula bridge was an inverted trestle bridge with a span of 154 feet and sitting on two brick abutments. It was an impressive structure nearly seven stories above the river below.
The cast-iron structure was the second trestle bridge the engineer, Amasa Stone, had ever built. The first inverted trestle bridge he built was only 30 feet long and five feet high and crossed the Erie Canal. He thought the design of the iron trestle worked so well over a 30-foot span that, of course, it would also work over the much greater span of 154 feet. Other engineers tried to talk Amasa Stone out of building this type of bridge, but he wouldn’t listen. Amasa Stone even fired two of the construction foremen involved in the building of the bridge when they pointed out its flaws.
Mr. Amasa Stone’s pride led him to refuse to take the advice of others. His hubris would cost big time in the lives of many passengers on the train. You know where else pride and the refusal to take advice are going to cost people big time? It is going to cost those who think so highly of their own opinions that they never repent and believe in Christ for the salvation of their souls. It is going to cost them for all eternity when they are cast out of His presence forever. If you are having a hard time hearing the call to repent and believe in Christ because you think you know better, I advise you to ditch that pride and humble yourself before it is forever too late.
The Unthinkable
The train hit the bridge travelling at a speed of 10-15 miles per hour. The locomotive made it nearly all the way across to the other side when the unthinkable happened.
Do you know that at the end of your life, you will be crossing over a bridge of no return? You don’t want the unthinkable to happen then. Have you ever thought about how you are going to cross the gap between yourself and God, who is holy and righteous? God says, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-109Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9‑10)).
Although we might like to forget the sins we have done, sin leaves an ugly stain on our personal record that time can never wash away. We might forget it, but God doesn’t. The Bible says, “God requireth that which is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:1515That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past. (Ecclesiastes 3:15)). The only way to bridge the gap between us and God is to believe in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood Jesus shed at Calvary has the power to wash away every stain of sin. Also, when we believe in Christ, God pours His grace into our hearts, enabling us to live godly and righteous lives in a world that has gone astray.
Faith in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the only bridge from this life to heaven that will ever hold up. All the other bridges set up by men and women will come tumbling down and end up in ruin.
The first locomotive was almost over the iron trestle part of the bridge and passing onto the brick abutment when the engineer heard a horrible crack and felt a shift in the bridge beneath him. He knew at once the bridge was failing. He applied full power to the train wheels. The first locomotive heaved ahead and pulled itself onto the abutment at just about the same time the iron trestle behind it broke apart. The second locomotive was still on the trestle bridge. When it began to fall, its great weight tore apart the iron coupling between it and the first locomotive. Seventy-three feet through the air the locomotive fell, crashing into the river bed below. As it fell, it drew the rest of the train cars, one by one, behind it in a chain reaction, until all nine cars crashed in a tumbled heap below.
Chaos
Railway cars back in those days were made mostly of wood, and the oil in the lamps and heaters soon set the tangled cars blazing.
The commotion and noise of the train crash could be heard a long way off, alerting the nearby town of Ashtabula of the disaster. The volunteer fire department was poorly prepared to fight the fire. With the fire raging, any kind of rescue effort was nearly impossible.
Songwriter Philip Bliss and his wife were passengers on the train. Philip Bliss initially survived the wreck, but when he couldn’t find his wife, he went back into the flaming wreckage to look for her and neither of them was ever seen alive again. Philip Bliss was only 37 years old.
The confusion and commotion of the train wreck was almost unimaginable. It must have been extremely difficult for those who came out from the small town of Ashtabula to know what to do.
Death often is a time of confusion and commotion. If you are planning to wait until your deathbed to get right with God, think again. That time is likely to be a time of great confusion and commotion. You may be very sick and unable to think. You might find it hard to breathe. Doctors may lie to you and tell you that you are sure to recover, knowing you may not live out the night. It is always difficult to think clearly in times of great stress. Doctors may even administer drugs that make it impossible for you to think straight.
Now’s the Time
No! The time to get right with God is now when you are of sound mind and health. Now is the time to make the Lord Jesus your Lord and Savior and begin to live for Him. The thief at the cross was converted at the end of his life, but he is an exception. Deathbed conversions are rare. “Prepare to meet thy God,” the prophet Amos wrote (Amos 4:1212Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. (Amos 4:12)). When he wrote this, he didn’t mean for anybody to wait till the end of their lives to get ready to meet God. The time to begin that preparation is right now at this present moment. This present moment is the only moment in your life you can be sure you will have. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
The Ashtabula Railway Disaster was the deadliest train wreck in America during the nineteenth century. Sixty-nine people died in the wreckage. Even under the best conditions, life is very uncertain. No one can say with any certainty that they will be given another day of life on earth. “Time and chance [happen] to them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:1111I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. (Ecclesiastes 9:11)). When life is so uncertain, don’t you think it would be wise to come to Christ by faith so that heaven may be yours if you are suddenly called out of this world?
You’ll find lots more about how God bridges the gap with sinners in From an Enemy to a Friend.