1977: Lightning strikes a Consolidated Edison substation along the Hudson River, tripping two circuit breakers and setting off a chain of events that results in a massive power failure. The entire city of New York is blacked out, parts of it for more than 24 hours.
The Big Apple’s Great Blackout of 1977
A number of fail-safes in the system should have prevented such a catastrophic failure. But bad luck (multiple lightning strikes that seemed to find Con Ed utilities), operator mistakes and some substandard facilities maintenance triggered a chain reaction throughout the system that eventually crippled the biggest generator serving New York City. That failure plunged the Big Apple into darkness at around 9:30 p.m.
The blackout couldn’t have come at a worse time for a city that was already down on its luck. When the lights went out, New York was in the midst of a financial crisis and teetering at the edge of bankruptcy. The rioting and looting that followed the blackout marked one of the lowest points in New York history.
In all, 1,616 stores were either looted or damaged during the blackout. More than a thousand fires were set, 14 of them resulting in multiple alarms. And in the biggest mass arrest in city history, 3,776 people were thrown in the jug. The jails were so overcrowded that the overflow had to be held in precinct basements and other makeshift jails.
A congressional study later put the damage caused by looting and vandalism at $300 million.
Photo: A man looks through the shattered windows of a looted jewelry store on Utica Avenue in Brooklyn during the blackout that struck New York City in July 1977.
This article first appeared on Wired.com July 13, 2007.Go Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article.