The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire - Sixteen Minutes | 3

American History Tellers

Wondery

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

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2019

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Two years after the labor strikes that shook the city of New York, the workers of Triangle factory returned to better wages and lower hours. But when a fire broke out near closing time on a Saturday afternoon, these same workers found themselves swept up in a catastrophe. Some would escape, but many would not.

In the weeks that followed, a city mourned and began to wrestle with questions of responsibility. Where did the blame for the tragedy lie? With the city? With the factory owners? Or with the workers themselves?

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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, download the app today.
0:18.0	Imagine it's a Saturday in March, 1911.
0:21.0	You operate the elevator at the ash building and today you're riding a salesman down to the ground floor.
0:28.0	You crank on the doors and they open up and down like the jaws of a giant bear yawning.
0:34.0	Have a good weekend, sir.
0:36.0	The salesman steps out into the foyer without saying anything back.
0:40.0	You don't mind, though. It's just the way people are.
0:43.0	The next elevator car over, your colleague Gasper, leans against the mesh cage, his hat tilted back on his head.
0:49.0	Oh, today's just been dragging. No one here. No one except Triangle.
0:54.0	Yes. When are they not here? No one else works for this late on Saturday.
0:59.0	Well, beats being a carriage driver pays better too. Sure. As long as you're not afraid of heights.
1:04.0	I'll take heights over downtown traffic any day. All those cars zooming around, geez.
1:09.0	Scares the horses have to death.
1:11.0	That's Gasper's elevator call. But he doesn't move. He just keeps leaning against his cage.
1:16.0	Eight floors calling early today. You laugh. Yeah. What? A whole three minutes? What are you waiting for?
1:23.0	I'm waiting for them to queue up a bit. First one there always hits the button.
1:28.0	I ride up and then I'm stuck waiting as they all bump into each other.
1:31.0	Excuse me. Get on.
1:33.0	Way I figure it. I wait a little bit down here. Let them pile up at the doors. Much faster. Much more efficient.
1:39.0	But that's your bell. They usually don't hit it twice in a row like that.
1:44.0	Two of you look at each other. What's going on? It's on eight and ten.
1:49.0	Something's not right about this. That's when you smell it. Smoke.
	...

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