Marion,
The city is Piding, Germany. I suggest searching that on google earth and you will see the bridge to the east of the city. Try using the camera function to see photographs that people have taken and linked to the site. The mountains are beautiful. I have some great shots of both bridges with the mountains in the background and it is breathtaking! (here is one http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/engforum/index.php?showtopic=7758) I think it would have been a great place to work on bridges, especially since the war had just ended, but obviously it was still dangerous.
The official paperwork says "Tec 4 Freeman P. Pascal, Jr. was drowned on the night of 12 May 1945 1 mile east of Piding Germany in the Saalach River. Tec 4 Pascal was installing electrical fixtures on a bridge which the battalion was constructing across that Saalach River when the motor boat in which he was working was caught in the strong current and carried down stream hitting a cable which caused the boat to overturn. Every effort was made to save Tec 4 Pascal but due to the difficult conditions these efforts failed. To date the body has not been recovered. The bridge which forms a portion of a by pass on the Autobahn near the town of Piding was upon completion names "Pascal Bridge" in honor of Tec 4 Pascal who gave his life for it".
Mr. Purcell knew Tec 4 Pascal and has told me several times about the events that night. He said one guy jumped in to try and save him but the water was so swift and cold, that there was no way anyone could have gotten to him. This is obviously a hard one for him to talk about.
The bridge built by the 157th was located just south of the original (and current) bridge location. If you do get a chance to go to the site, i would think that a quick walk around would get you the exact spot as they had to move a lot of dirt with the bulldozers and road scrapers to get down to their bridge location.
Brian
