# Santa Fe bridge collapse (July 17, 1895)

- URL: https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/santa-fe-bridge-collapse-july-17-1895/

- Kind: Wrecks and other events
- Status: Historic or vanished
- County: El Paso County, Colorado
- Point: 39.0859, -104.8669 (from a cited description (good to a quarter mile))

- Updated: 2026-10-06

## What we know

The Santa Fe's 300-foot bridge south of Monument fell under a 22-car freight on July 17, 1895, 'while under repair'. Five were killed: two trainmen, the foreman of the bridge-repair crew and his wife, and a tramp riding in a boxcar (von Ahlefeldt, S-0009 p. 40, with the Youngers' photo of 'the first bridge south of Monument'; Lavelett's caption says four). The engine was a 2-8-0 Baldwin (S-0011, p. 131).

## Where it was

'½ mile south of Second St. next to Beacon Light Rd.' (Lavelett, S-0011, p. 131, photo captions); 'a quarter of a mile south of Monument' (von Ahlefeldt, S-0009, p. 40). Placed at the Santa Fe's Dirty Woman Creek crossing, 0.4 mile south of Second Street, where the 1976 survey photographed a stone arch (B71): an inference. Good to about a quarter mile.

Placed from a written description, such as a land section, a distance from a landmark or an old survey note.

## Nearby

- [Santa Fe stone arch bridge](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/santa-fe-stone-arch-bridge/): 0.0 mi southwest
- [Inez J. Lewis School](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/inez-j-lewis-school/): 0.4 mi northwest
- [St. Peter Catholic Church (1911)](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/st-peter-catholic-church-1911/): 0.4 mi northwest
- [Methodist parsonage (Father Dyer, 1874)](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/methodist-parsonage-father-dyer-1874/): 0.5 mi northwest
- [Higby Store](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/higby-store/): 0.5 mi northwest
- [Monument](https://palmerdivideresearch.com/places/monument/): 0.5 mi northwest

Source numbers (S-0000) refer to https://palmerdivideresearch.com/sources/. Compiled by Michael Christensen for Palmer Divide Research; CC BY 4.0.