[1] The accident occurred on the New York and New Haven Railroad where it crosses a small inlet of Long Island Sound via a swing bridge.

The approach from New York is around a sharp curve, so there was a signal indicating if the bridge was passable by trains: a red ball mounted upon a tall pole.

He described this day's event in his journal: I expected instant death, as I saw everything in front of us, up to the very seats on which we were sitting — cars, passengers, and all — plunge headlong into the water and disappear.

In the Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, the author Howard Payson Arnold describes: "⋯efforts he made during several hours to minister to the needs of the survivors, and to bring something like organized efficiency to bear upon the frightful and chaotic confusion that came close upon the disaster."

[6] As a result of the public panic and indignation caused by the accident, a bill was introduced in the Connecticut Legislature establishing a powerful state Board of Railroad Commissioners.

However, in the version actually enacted, the board's enforcement powers were removed, as well as a requirement that every train in the state would have to come to a dead halt before crossing any opening bridge.