This page originally appeared on Thomas Ehrenreich's Railroad Extra Website
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BRAKEMAN JOHN GRAY'S TERRIFIC
FLYING LEAP.
November 29, 1859, as a freight train was passing over the
Conawacta Bridge, at Lanesboro, Pa., an axle on one of the cars
broke, and nine of the cars became detached from the locomotive
and plunged from the bridge, fifty-two feet, to the ground below.
John Gray, of Port Jervis, a brakeman, was the only person on
that part of the train. He was standing on the top of the last
car that left the bridge, and jumped from it at the instant it
was going over. He landed on the ground fifty feet beyond where
the car fell, and one hundred feet from the point where he made
the leap—a frightful flying leap through the air. Instead
of being instantly killed, he lived five days with both arms broken,
his shoulder dislocated, and his body terribly mangled.
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