The coroner's report found that the bridge, located about 1,000 feet (300 m) from the railway station, had been improperly designed by the railroad company president, poorly constructed, and inadequately inspected.

[3][4] His construction firm had built the CP&A main line from 1850 to 1852,[5] and Stone had purchased the patent rights to brother-in-law William Howe's truss bridge[6] in 1842.

[3][10] Stone then ordered the CP&A's chief engineer, Charles Collins, to make the desired changes to the bridge design.

Where diagonal braces did not receive the extra compression from a live load, inverted Howe truss bridges had a tendency to buckle where the vertical posts were attached to the deck with cast iron angle blocks.

[26] Civil engineer Charles MacDonald, who inspected the bridge's original plans in 1877,[i] described and made drawings of part of the angle blocks.

The angle blocks which made up the chord at the bottom of the bridge also had lugs facing inward, to which were attached (by means MacDonald did not describe) the lateral braces.

[11] Collins, Congdon, Rogers, and Stone all later testified that the I-beams making up the diagonals were now turned 90 degrees, so that the flanges were horizontal.

5[43] of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway,[q] known as The Pacific Express, left Buffalo, New York, at 2 PM on December 29, 1876, 1 hour and 8 minutes behind schedule.

[47][r] More than 20 inches (510 mm) of snow had already fallen,[49] and winds 24 to 54 miles per hour (39 to 87 km/h)[50] were creating heavy snowdrifts on the railroad tracks[51] 6 feet (1.8 m) deep in places.

[60] As the "Socrates" neared the western abutment, engineer Daniel McGuire heard a crack and felt his locomotive drop slowly downward.

McGuire brought the "Socrates" to a halt about 100 yards (91 m) down the track, and began repeatedly sounding his whistle and ringing the train bell in alarm.

[87] Rescuers first on the scene included railroad employees, those waiting on the platform at the station, and residents of Ashtabula who lived near the bridge.

[86] The Lake Erie Hose Company's hand- and steam-pumped horse-drawn fire engines arrived first,[92][z] but Knapp never gave any orders to fight the flames.

[97] For several days after the wreck, townspeople and railroad employees used their hands and feet, hoes, rakes, and shovels to dig through the ash, ice, mud, and snow to find any personal items they could.

These items—which included partially burned train tickets, diaries, photographs, watches, jewelry, unique or rare items of clothing, or keepsakes—were kept by the railroad.

[106] Concerned friends and family members sent letters and telegrams in the hundreds to railroad and civic authorities, seeking knowledge of their loved ones.

[94] On January 1, 1877, the Ohio General Assembly adopted a joint resolution appointing a committee to investigate the causes of the Ashtabula River bridge collapse, and to make recommendations to the legislature.

Williams, and took personal testimony from civil engineer M.J. Becker and from railroad officials and employees Amasa Stone, Charles Collins, Albert Congdon, A.L.

In appendices to its report, the joint committee printed in full the coroner's jury testimony of civil engineers A. Gottlieb, John D. Crehore, and Joseph Tomlinson.

[32] According to his report, "The cast iron angle block at top of second set of braces had the south lug broken off close to the face, and the line of fracture disclosed an air hole extending over one half the entire section.

[128] Although the LS&MS refused to accept responsibility for the disaster, it paid out more than $500,000 ($14,300,000 in 2023 dollars) to victims and their families to quiet legal claims.

[137] For some years prior to the disaster, locomotive engineers reported hearing "snapping sounds" as their trains crossed the Ashtabula Bridge.

[130] Gasparini and Fields conclude that the bridge might have survived the loss of the lug had the chords and diagonals been made stronger through active continuous connection.

[9] Åkesson points out that construction errors probably made the diagonals even less effective as thin members were placed where thicker ones should have gone and vice versa.

An inverted Howe truss puts the superstructure below the track, where it is difficult to see and inspect, and the angle blocks were hidden by the surrounding I-beams.

[142] Concern that the city lacked medical care for the victims of the bridge disaster, citizens of Ashtabula began raising money to build a hospital in their town.

[citation needed] As part of the Interstate Commerce Act, a federal system was set up in 1887 to formally investigate fatal railroad accidents.

[150] Letters from concerned friends and families seeking whether loved ones had survived are archived at the Jennie Munger Gregory Memorial Museum at Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio.

[106] Days after testifying before the state legislature committee, LS&MS chief engineer Charles Collins was found dead in his bedroom of a gunshot wound to the head.

[151] Having tendered his resignation to the railroad's board of directors the previous Monday and been refused,[152] Collins was believed to have committed suicide out of grief and feeling partially responsible for the tragic accident.