ANNOUNCER: Bringing you the world for 20 years, this is CNN.</s>BONNIE ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Sunset Limited was crossing a bridge in a remote swampy area just north of Mobile when, according to survivors, it suddenly began to lurch. The middle section of the 84-year-old wood and steel span collapsed, sending two passenger cars plunging into the water.</s>ANDERSON: There was no question that it was an absolutely awful tragedy. What made this so much more tragic is that it occurred in such a remote area, it was such a remote bayou. There were no roads, no access to it. So the first pictures any of us saw were burning parts of the train and coaches from aerial videotape. As dramatic as the pictures are from the air, from below, looking up, it was something that would just take your breath away.</s>ANDERSON: With no roads, no ground access to the accident scene, 200 state and local authorities, along with the Coast Guard, used helicopters and boats, even scuba divers, to rescue survivors. But fog and smoke from the wreckage made that task more difficult.</s>ANDERSON: Work crews arrived as quickly as they could from around the state. There were volunteers doing what they could to rescue those who were still alive. Some 47 people died fairly immediately. It was as dramatic a train crash as you can imagine.
CNN 20: Amtrak Train Derails, September 22, 1993