[5][7] On November 1, a day of heavy rain, the inaugural train carrying some 600 invited visitors and dignitaries, including Henry Chouteau, of the founding family of St. Louis, set out from downtown at 9 a.m. led by the locomotive Missouri.

The steam engine and seven of the cars fell through the wooden timbers and the others rolled down the 36 foot embankment into the riverbed (but fortunately not in the water).

Passengers on the train included many well known people including Mayor Washington King of St. Louis (badly cut),[11] Mayor Madison Miller of Carondolet (badly injured),[12] and Erastus Wells, President of St. Louis omnibus company (not injured)[3] as well as bankers, judges, representatives in the state legislature and their friends and children.

The false work, consisting of trestles to facilitate construction of the bridge, was strengthened to prepare for the train and tested with heavy gravel cars.

The commission found the trestles were of traditional railroad design made of three to four posts (called bents) driven into the river bed.

Caps on the posts held stringers, on which were mounted floor boards and then ties and rails.

The wooden trestle was built by Stone, Boomer & Co., of Chicago, “men of great experience building bridges in the West.” The investigation found that the trestle design should have been sufficient for the weight of the train at slow speed (4 mph).

Julius W. Adams, Principal Engineer of the Lexington and Danville Railroad offered the opinion that excessive speed and roughness of the tracks had caused the locomotive to derail on the first section of the bridge damaging the floorboards.

A New York Times report of the investigation featured the contrary opinion of Mr. Darius Hunkins, a contractor on the site.

After a stop at the 14th Street Station, three cars were dropped at Cheltenham to reduce weight, increase speed and stay on schedule.

The accident happened at about 1:30 p.m.[16] The quick work of brakeman Radcliff is credited with keeping the last four cars from falling into the riverbed.

Conductor English is credited with walking back to Hermann to bring the relief train.

[16] The Missouri Republican from November 2, 1855, contained stories on both the inaugural trip of the Pacific Railroad and the ensuing tragedy.

The above paragraphs had hardly been written when reports came of a terrible disaster in an attempt to cross the Gasconade Bridge.

[3] Survivors and construction crews at the wreck site worked to free those trapped in the wreckage and helped load the dead onto a freight car.

The relief train left the wreck site with the wounded and dead at about 5 pm Thursday.

[19] Fear of additional bridge failures due to high water and flooding delayed the return to St. Louis.

On the way back to St. Louis, the relief train was stopped by flood waters at Boeuf Creek.

[19] Seriously wounded survivors and deceased were transported from New Haven to Washington by ferryboat and reached St. Louis by train the next day.

The railroad hoped the excursion would convince the state legislature to authorize additional funds.

Surviving cars from the wreck and the locomotive and tender were brought to Jefferson City by ferry boat.

In 1869, the First transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, Utah, stretching from San Francisco to Chicago.

[5] In 1861, the Gasconade River Bridge was one of those burned in Missouri's conflict with secessionists in the early days of the Civil War.