The New Yorker delves into one of the big fears of every NYC tower dweller/worker–becoming hopelessly trapped in a malfunctioning elevator–with the actual time-lapse footage of one unfortunate rider’s ordeal. View it here.
The footage, recorded by the elevator’s security camera, shows a 34-year-old Business Week employee who was trapped in an elevator for 41 hours at the McGraw Hill Building (not the 1930s Raymond Hood creation on 42nd Street, but the Modernist tower on 6th Avenue near Rockefeller Center) after trying to return to his office after a smoke break.
The video spans his entire ordeal and shows him quite literally climbing the walls, trying to catch some sleep on the floor, and prying apart the elevator doors to both look for help and to relieve himself. Despite having several cigarettes left in his pack and the pressure of the stressful situation, the employee managed to abide by the city’s clean air rules and never lit up during the time he was trapped. Read his story here.
