A crew of men and a team of horses pulling a load of logs heading from Illinois to Iowa fell with the bridge down 40 feet into the frigid waters of the Mississippi.

The second collapse occurred around 1 a.m. on June 1, 1956 after a 22-year-old Muscatine man, Duane Allen Chelf, crashed his vehicle into the bridge at high speed in his efforts to elude police.

[2] "[Duane Allen Chelf] hit a wooden bridge railing, knocking it loose and then smashed into a girder, forcing his car to land on its side.

As traffic began to move again about 2:25 a.m., the second span from the Illinois side of the bridge gave way and fell into the water below.

The scene fell to total blackness in the dead of the night because the span collapse severed the bridge lighting.