noon
The crowds , however , at the Grand Central Dépôt , trying to leave the city , were enormous . People were placed in cattle-cars , on wood cars -- in fact , every sort of conveyance adapted to the tracks was pressed into service . The Thirtieth Street Dépôt , on the west side , also was crowded , and trains were leaving thence every few minutes . Just before noon , the city was horror-stricken by the news of a frightful accident at Spuyten Duyvil . An overloaded train from the Thirtieth Street Dépôt there , through a broken switch , came into collision with another overloaded train from the Grand Central Dépôt . The slaughter was horrible . Twelve cars were derailed , and more than a hundred and twenty people , mostly women and children , killed .