Question about an infamous night in Downtown...

[deathstar]

After this one is answered, I'll be fine with it being closed or deleted.

When America was attacked in Pearl Harbor, there's a story about a soldier keeping watch atop a building in Downtown Jacksonville, and a lawyer I believe, driving off the side and smashing this poor soul under his car. What bridge and building was it? I've looked everywhere, tried every keyword I could think of on google, and can't find it at all.

Thanks.

[Dog Walker]

Since the date is pinned down you could go through the microfilm copies of the two Jacksonville papers for the week after December 7 to see if it was reported.  That sort of thing would be.   The librarians at the Main Library would be glad to help you.

Not everything is on Google yet.

[acme54321]

Just thinking out loud here, but what bridge into DT would have been high enough to drive a car off onto the top of a building?

[fsujax]

maybe it was the old acosta bridge. there were buildings and such right up next to it and its ramps.

[Ocklawaha]

Your right FSUJAX, the old Acosta had Monticello Drugs buildings on the north side and you could have jumped from the bridge to the roof... without wings.

OCKLAWAHA

[BridgeTroll]

Not everything is on Google yet.

Say it aint so!  Google needs to get its ass in gear... FYI... for those interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls...

http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/

[deathstar]

I wanna say I maybe read it in a Jacksonville history book? I wondered if I had read it here on MJ, too, which is why I even did a search on here as well. I thought maybe the old acosta,   even tried looking at old images to see where it could've been possible, just not sure still.

[Jimmy]

Dog Walker is right.  Head to the main library and look at the microfilm (or microfiche) papers from that week.  Surely such an event would be reported in one or both of them.

[Ernest Street]

Most Jacksonville residents don't know that two WW2  P-51 Mustang fighters collided over Post Street sending engines and plane parts through apartments along Post and Cherry Street. One pilot came to rest (not in peace) in the same vacant lot he used to play in as a child.
Same thing... it was reported in an issue of the RAP journal, but is still widely unknown to people that live in the area of the crash
(about 1942-1945) There is still visible repairs to several buildings. ballistic Rolls Royce Allison V-12 engines Killed some poor Shoe salesman...and flew right over some child in bed.

[deathstar]

Wow.. definitely never heard about that, Ernest. I really wish I could just find it simply by looking through google or bing, or remember Where I read it. The fact that Ock doesn't even recall it is puzzling, not that I'm suggesting anything about your age, Ock! I'm gonna check out the main library very soon to see.

[urbaknight]

Did the driver receive any kind of punishment? Or has JAX always hated pedestrians?

[deathstar]

It only took me a year, but I finally found that damned story, it was published in the FTU and here it is: http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/020401/nef_5321599.html

The bad news was that from out of the sky, without warning, an automobile fell on top of Pvt. O'Conner.

No wailing siren.

No blazing searchlight.

No ack-ack of protecting artillery.

No Zeros, no dive-bombers.

Nobody even got the make of the car.

Just, KA-BAM!

All of a sudden Pvt. O.C. O'Conner was under a car.

The good news was that he suffered only a broken ankle.

The incident created a great deal of excitement, however.

There was a great commotion and to-do of police and military assuming the worst before it was determined that the falling automobile could be described as "friendly" rather than "hostile" falling automobile.

The Educator Biscuit Co. warehouse was at the Riverside end of the Jacksonville-St. Johns River Bridge, later the Acosta Bridge. Pvt. O'Conner's post on the roof was 13 feet beneath the western border of the Riverside Viaduct, well within range of flying automobiles.

Police said a visiting insurance salesman from Marietta, Ga., was returning to the city from a night of merrymaking when, unbeknownst to him, his car ran out of bridge.

[urbanlibertarian]

Most Jacksonville residents don't know that two WW2  P-51 Mustang fighters collided over Post Street sending engines and plane parts through apartments along Post and Cherry Street. One pilot came to rest (not in peace) in the same vacant lot he used to play in as a child.
Same thing... it was reported in an issue of the RAP journal, but is still widely unknown to people that live in the area of the crash
(about 1942-1945) There is still visible repairs to several buildings. ballistic Rolls Royce Allison V-12 engines Killed some poor Shoe salesman...and flew right over some child in bed.

Here's an MJ thread about the fighter planes crashing:
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,10765.0.html