The "Columbia" and the 11 cars behind it acted like a linked chain load. The bridge's collapse was therefore not sudden, but rather somewhat slow and piecemeal. The "Columbia" struck the abutment, the engine supported by the stonework while the tender hung downward toward the river valley. The first express car fell into the ravine, crashing nose-first into the ground at the base of the abutment. The "Columbia" slipped backward off the abutment, landing upside-down and backward atop the first express car. It then fell onto its side, its trucks pointing north.