Book excerpt: Ten days before Christmas. Jingle Bells fill the air. On December 15, 1967 at 5 P. M., the gorgeous Silver Bridge that connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Gallipolis, Ohio crashed into the Ohio River taking with it forty-six lives. Vincent Booton had gone across the bridge to buy a new color television set for his family. Kayleen MacKlintoc is a wealthy college student is home for winter break. Fred and Anabell Myers have a doctor's appointment. George Henderson is picking up a diamond bracelet for his wife. Jim Henderson is looking for a way to avoid the draft, but there is no room in the Henderson house for cowards. Denise Sheppard is a single mother with two kids. She works at a truck stop as a waitress and can hardly afford peanut butter much less Christmas presents. Ken and Gloria Gilmore are newlyweds, deeply in love with their whole lives ahead of them. Mary Ann Gilmore is a vivacious teenager anticipating her first kiss. They all have one thing in common: The Silver Bridge and the horribly cold water that awaits. One loud boom and the bridge goes down. A minute later, dozens of cars are underwater, and people are beating on the windows and doors, trying to escape certain death. Trapped, dying or already dead from concrete slabs and twisted metal that crushed cars and skulls with indifference. Trapped, dying with no way out. Christmas presents wash up on banks of the Ohio River.