joint committee printed in full the coroner's jury testimony of civil engineers A. Gottlieb, John D. Crehore, and Joseph Tomlinson. The legislative joint committee issued its report on January 30, 1877. The committee blamed the collapse of the Ashtabula River bridge on three factors: The bridge's design was flawed. Nothing in the design prevented the lateral buckling of the braces or the upper chord. Only a part of the upper chord was designed to transmit load to the angle blocks, and the lugs on the angle blocks were poorly designed (so that strain could not be fully transmitted to the braces and counter-braces). The bridge was apparently designed for a non-moving live load, and little evidence existed to show it was designed to accommodate jarring, oscillation, vibration, or the force of wind. There were significant errors in construction. The members making up the braces were not connected to act in unison, greatly reducing the bridge's ability to carry a live load. In the lower chord, lateral braces were placed only at every other panel connection, extended across two panels (not one), and were not connected to one another where they crossed. The sway braces were too small to prevent sway, and placed only at every other panel as well. Neither the braces nor counter-braces were attached to the angle blocks, and their ends were not square. The defects in design and construction could have been identified by careful inspection at any time, but the railroad's inspectors did not identify these problems. Many braces and counter-braces had fallen out of position before the bridge collapsed, something inspectors either did not notice or the railroad did not repair. The committee found no defects in materials, and rejected the idea that application of the air brakes by the second locomotive caused the bridge to collapse. Conclusions of the MacDonald investigation A third investigation was conducted independently by civil engineer Charles MacDonald, who likely was commissioned to study the bridge's collapse by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). MacDonald blamed three factors for the bridge's failure: Improper inspection by railroad officials. He noted, however, that the LS&MS was not alone in infrequent inspection by largely untrained men. An inadequate knowledge of the strength of iron. The whole industry suffered from a lack of this knowledge, he wrote. The failure of a mis-cast lug. MacDonald believed the bridge collapsed due to a flaw in