National Parks - The Great Disaster | 4

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2018

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the early morning hours of Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the city of San Francisco was torn apart by a huge earthquake–but it was the subsequent fires that did the most damage. As the city sought to rebuild, it also sought a more secure water supply, to break the stranglehold of a water company monopoly and insure that if fire were to strike the city again, abundant water was available to fight it.

But a new reservoir would require the flooding of a treasured portion of Yosemite, the Hetch Hetchy Valley, one of John Muir’s favorite locations. He and his new Sierra Club fiercely opposed the plan. But politicians in DC and San Francisco loved it. Played out across the nation, a conflict between preservationists like Muir and conservationists like Theodore Roosevelt would ultimately decide the fate of Hetch Hetchy.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music,
0:05.6	download the app today.
0:18.0	Imagine it's the early hours of April 18th, 1906.
0:22.0	The sun hasn't yet risen, but light peaks around the curtains of your apartment bedroom.
0:26.0	Your husband lies asleep beside you, but you're wide awake.
0:30.0	For the past two months, your newborn, Violet, has been waking you each morning before dawn to nurse.
0:36.0	This is the first night since she was born that she's still soundly sleeping.
0:40.0	You should be relieved, but you're a light sleeper and your body is tense, alert, waiting for a cry from the other room.
0:47.0	Suddenly you hear something, but it's not what you expect.
0:51.0	It's like the sound just before you're hit by a wave down by the beach.
0:55.0	The walls begin to tremble, and your bed jerks sharply away from the wall.
0:59.0	A whale rises from the other room.
1:01.0	He bolt out of bed and shakes your husband.
1:03.0	Charles, wake up! It's an earthquake!
1:05.0	Charles flings back to the covers, and before he can stand, a great portion of plaster from the ceiling crashes on his head.
1:11.0	He's alright, but the room is suddenly filled with dust.
1:14.0	You start to cough, but you're both thinking the same thing.
1:16.0	Get Violet!
1:17.0	You rushed to the nursery.
1:19.0	Out in the parlor, you can hear the crashes of China plates and Nicknack shattering in the heavy, clanging thud of your grandfather clock toppling over.
1:27.0	The floor begins to slant and you hear an explosion from the apartment across the hall.
1:31.0	You grab your screaming daughter, shield her face with a blanket, and return to the living room, where Charles is clear to path to the door.
	...

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