Edison Turns On Lower Manhattan

On September 4, 1882, Thomas Edison's Edison Illuminating Company threw the switch at its new Pearl Street Station in the Financial District, sending direct current to 400 lamps across 82 customers in a swath of Lower Manhattan bounded by Wall, Nassau, Pearl and Spruce streets. It was the first commercial power plant of its kind in the country, and it ran its wires underground rather than stringing them overhead like the arc lights already glowing on some city streets. The New York Times took notice fast, since its own building was among the first customers wired up. Edison himself, watching the dynamos spin up that afternoon, predicted the system would run forever unless an earthquake stopped it. Within two years the station had grown to more than 500 customers and over 10,000 lamps.