A Dangerous Drop on Madison Street
A lineman for the Western Union Telegraph Company narrowly survives a thirty-foot fall while hoisting poles.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Martin Brennan, a lineman employed by the Western Union Telegraph Company, was painfully injured yesterday while putting in new sixty-foot poles on Madison street. Several men were hoisting a pole in the air preparatory to dropping it into the hole, and Brennan stood on the derrick, when suddenly the derrick gave way and threw Brennan headlong a distance of thirty feet. He was picked up bleeding and insensible and was conveyed to Providence hospital in the patrol wagon. Though no bones were broken, Brennan was painfully cut and bruised, and it may be a week or more before he is able to be about.
“Brennan stood on the derrick, when suddenly the derrick gave way and threw Brennan headlong a distance of thirty feet.”
Workplace safety in Seattle’s early utility expansion was notoriously precarious. This incident at a high-elevation point in the city’s early infrastructure development underscores the physical toll of building the urban telegraph and electrical grid.
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