Gothamist: A Terrible Day, Remembered

jmchez

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 18:32:28 -0500

By the way. Ric Burn's documentary on New York is magnificent. His pieces on the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and 9/11 leave you astonished. For the 9/11 part he showed what the mainstream press quickly buried, the falling bodies. The press says is to preserve the dead's dignity but is really to make sure we don't get angry all over again. They care so much about us, don't they? I for one believe that we should watch those pictures and video every 9/11. We should not forget to be angry.

jmchez

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 18:27:26 -0500

I've always wondered whether that tragedy caused the incredible architectural change that overtook New York City when outside fire escapes were retrofitted on thousands and thousands of buildings. Fire escapes are so ubiquitious that we forget that every apartment building built before the 20s (or 30s) was not designed by their architects to have those lifesaving but still ugly architectural mosntrosities in front. Oddly enough, they soon became a symbol of the city and until recently, with everybody having air conditioning, poor man's terraces. What I would like to know is when they were first ordered and what kind of money was made by the installers. Can you imagine getting a comission on that kind of massive, if short lived, market?

crybaby

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 16:23:01 -0500

#17: it's still a national historic landmark The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Building, a National Historic Landmark, is located at 23-29 Washington Place in New York City, NY. The property is now used as classrooms and offices by New York University and is not open to the public http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/pwwmh/ny30.htm

Lo

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 15:21:39 -0500

Actually, the building isn't a national history landmark. NYU owns the building and has classes in there.

DMo

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:42:15 -0500

There's a great historical fiction book by Kevin Baker called "Dreamland" that deals with several different people in the city around that time. One of the characters is a victim of the fire. Good read.

crybaby

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:17:34 -0500

that article alone should be the modern journalist's style handbook

MT

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:02:11 -0500

Whoops. Thanks for the correction Julian. The segment about the fire is particularly powerful. The description of those girls falling by the newspaper reporter is absolutely horrifying. You are transported there.

Tim N.

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:47:57 -0500

102 Minutes is another excellent read. And the segment about the fire in the Burns doc is amazing.

Julian

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:16:14 -0500

The NYC documentary was by Ric Burns, Ken's brother.

crybaby

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:01:22 -0500

#9: this building is a national history landmark, and is closed to the public. yay nyu.

Rodney P. Sweetchops

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 12:40:37 -0500

MT, what Ken Burns documentary are you referring to? I didn't know he did one about NYC...

Ace

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 12:27:37 -0500

I hope this building is designated as a landmark

katiebakes

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 12:27:26 -0500

In the book 102 Minutes, which is written by 2 NYT reporters and which recounts the scene inside the World Trade Center towers on September 11th, a lot of attention is given to the Triangle Factory fire. If I recall correctly, the authors note that many of the regulations that were passed following the fire were reversed or changed around the time that the World Trade Centers were being built. They make numerous comparisons between the two tragedies and it is quite compelling.

rev pays

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 11:21:52 -0500

The best movie on this tragedy was the ABC movie of the week on the triangle shirtwaist factory fire with Tom Bosley as a supervisor in said factory.

Tim N.

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 11:13:18 -0500

There's a great book called Triange: The Fire that Changed America which came out a couple of years ago. Great, great reporting, goes into the whole story of the locked doors and the piles of rags on the floor, basically making the whole place a tinderbox. The owners of the plant were indicted but acquitted, even with all that evidence. That lead to the writing of new laws that we have today. Great read on a tragic event.

Julian

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 11:08:29 -0500

Actually the anniversary is tomorrow, March 25. In 1911 it also was a Saturday.

me

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 10:53:53 -0500

oddly enough, the fire at the happy land social club happened (i believe) on the exact same day in 1990.

crybaby

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 10:43:17 -0500

this calls for one hell of a panda story

MT

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 10:37:46 -0500

P.S. The Ken Burns NY documentary series has some great coverage of the Triangle tragedy. Anyone who hasn't seen that series should check it out. You'll love New York even more when you're done.

MT

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 10:35:32 -0500

Maybe Roger Toussaint should take a minute today and remember that the goal of unions is to protect their members from exploitation, not to gain personal power. It's ironic that what started out as such a noble and necessary social goal has been itself exploited and warped into the very type of thing it once tried to fight against.