Construction of the D Street suspension bridge was an early priority of the D&RG because so many of its shop workers and yard hands lived on that side of town. The bridge shortened their walk to work. May 30, 1904, Memorial Day, the bridge collapsed as 12 women and children threw flowers "on the bottom of the stream in memory of the heroic dead" who served in the Civil and Spanish-American wars. At least six died in the high spring runoff, and their bodies were never recovered. (1)