meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
History Daily

The Cuyahoga River Fire Fuels America’s Environmental Movement

History Daily

Airship | Noiser | Wondery

History

4.42.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2023

⏱️ 16 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

June 22, 1969. The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio catches fire, sparking a movement to clean up the United States’ polluted waterways.


Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily Add Free.

0:03.7

Listen with Wondry Plus in the Wondari app,

0:06.0

or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at intohistory.com.

0:22.4

It's the afternoon of November 1st, 1952, on a tugboat

0:26.7

mored to the bank of the Kaya Hoga River in Cleveland, Ohio.

0:30.6

A crew of eight workmen, Toil, under the afternoon sun.

0:34.8

Sying weirdly, one of them sets his tools down and walks to the boat's edge.

0:39.1

Disgust overcomes him though, as he gazes at the murky waterway below,

0:43.0

its surface covered in a thick layer of oil.

0:46.4

Kaya Hoga River snakes through the heart of Cleveland, dividing the city in two.

0:51.0

With factories lining its banks, the river has become a polluted, slow-moving sewer,

0:56.0

tainted by the waste of steel plants, oil refineries, and chemical works.

1:00.9

Earlier this year, the situation grew worse, after a leak at one of the area's biggest

1:05.6

refineries spilled a tremendous amount of oil into the Kaya Hoga.

1:10.1

Now, the workmen stares at the thick slick it left behind,

1:13.4

turning the river in inky black.

1:15.9

As he eyes the water, his attention is grabbed by a muffled sputtering nearby.

1:20.6

He spots bubbles, gathering at the river's surface.

1:23.9

The disturbance is the result of trapped gases struggling to escape beneath the oil.

1:29.3

The workmen shakes his head at the sad side, but he doesn't think too much of it.

1:34.1

Until screams of a alarm suddenly pierce the air.

1:37.5

The workers glance up to see people on the opposite shore, frantically gesturing down the river.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Airship | Noiser | Wondery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Airship | Noiser | Wondery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.