Over the Desjardin canal in Hamilton, on March 12, 1857, the locomotive Oxford broke through the bridge and plunged into the icy canal water, dragging behind her cars filled with terrified passengers. 59 people were killed in this accident, making it one of Ontario's first railway disasters. The train was coming into Hamilton from Toronto and was due at the station by 6:15pm. Many of the victims died of drowning, unable to escape the wreckage of their passenger car. Coincidentally, these people died not far from where the bodies of the Cholera victims had been buried just twenty-five years earlier. Hikers along the new waterfront trail between Coote's Paradise and Bayfront Park have occasionally glimpsed ghostly apparitions wandering aimlessly about, seemingly searching for their family and loved ones who perished there as well. In fact, one Hamilton resident, Jeff Thompson, reported seeing the ghosts of a man desperately trying to pull his wife from the water in the canal beneath the high level bridge while walking his dog. Allegedly, Mr. Thompson stopped and believing the man and woman to be real, called out to them to see if they needed assistance. Neither the man, nor the drowning woman, seemed to hear him. As he looked on in horror, Mr. Thompson's dog began barking at the apparitions, continuing to do so, even after they faded and disappeared. It took a few sharp tugs on his leash to convince the dog to keep walking. He continued to keep glancing over his shoulder as he walked from the site of the train wreck, but did not see anything else at that time. To this day, the stone bridge abutments remain from the original failed bridge, just below the steel struts of the newer replacement. As you stand there, you can almost envision the horrible scene, ruined passenger cars, steam rising from the frigid waters, blood stained snow and ice and the bodies of the dead and dying lying in and about the broken bits of bridge and wreckage. From time to time, angler's fishing in the canal under the bridge have thought they'd seen faces under the water. Silently pleading with them to pull them from their watery grave.