More than 50 people died when a train derailed on a drawbridge near Atlantic City 120 years ago. It was a disaster that made headlines across the country and helped change how companies communicate with the news media. The Oct. 28, 1906, accident involved an electric train operated by the West Je rsey Seashore Railroad. The train derailed on a drawbridge that had just closed after allowing a boat to pass through. Two railcars plunged into the water, while a third was left dangling from the bridge. Paul Schopp, with the South Jersey Culture and History Center at Stockton University, explained how the bridge’s design contributed to the catastrophe. “There was a set of rails that would lift out of the way to allow the bridge to swing. And when those rails came back down, they did not completely go flat with the remainder of the rail at the same level,” Schopp said. The tragedy struck a city whose economy depended heavily on visitors arriving by train. “It was a huge tragedy for Atlantic City because the city was built on tourism,” said Heather Perez, a special collections librarian at Stockton University and an Atlantic City historian. The railroad had undergone a major change just weeks before the deadly accident. “This particular train was the West Jersey Seashore Railroad. It had just been electrified in September, the month before, and reports were that perhaps the work had been done too rapidly,” Perez said. Schopp has a collection of postcards documenting the aftermath of the disaster, offering a glimpse into one of the darkest chapters of Atlantic City’s history. How the disaster changed public relations Beyond the devastating loss of life, the Atlantic City train wreck played an unexpected role in the history of public relations. Working for the railroad, public relations pioneer Ivy Lee issued what is widely considered the first modern press release in response to the disaster. At a time when companies often withheld information from reporters, Lee’s approach represented a significant shift. Rather than keeping details from the news media, the railroad provided its own official account of what happened. “It was a novel concept. I think the media were happy to get the information they did get at the time because that type of information had not been distributed in the past,” said Susan Adelizzi-Schmidt, president of Suasion Communications Group. The approach helped establish a practice that would become a standard part of how businesses and organizations communicate with journalists. Historians say Atlantic City train wreck victims deserve a memorial Despite the scale of the disaster and its lasting historical significance, there appears to be no historical marker or public memorial in Atlantic City honoring those who died. Historians who have studied the tragedy believe the victims deserve to be remembered. “There should be. It should be for all who perished in the first two cars that went completely underwater,” Schopp said. For Perez, remembering the tragedy is also about understanding the lessons it offers future generations. “History repeats itself, as they say, and learning about what happened in the past helps us to prevent,” Perez said. A century and two decades after the catastrophic derailment, the Atlantic City train disaster remains a significant chapter in Jersey Shore history — one whose impact continues to be felt even as the victims await a public tribute. This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC Philadelphia. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC Philadelphia journalist edited the article for publication. ...read more read less