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The New York Gas Light Company begins laying the first pipes for gas street lights in lower Manhattan.
Drawing
of new gas lights to be installed |
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The Croton Aqueduct, 40.5 miles long, is the first comprehensive water system for New York City. Water from the Croton Reservoir in Westchester County flows through a stone and brick tunnel to a holding reservoir located where the Great Lawn in Central Park is today. Croton
Reservoir at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, |
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The City government begins a comprehensive sewer system after years of debate. Cholera epidemics emphasize the need for improved sanitation. Despite expansion of this system throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the disposal of raw sewage is not tackled until the construction of sewage treatment plants in the 1930s.
One
of the many manholes used for access |
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The Brush Electric Light Company erects the first electric arc street lights along Broadway between 14th and 34th streets. The company also operates the first central electric station on West 25th Street. Arc lighting is soon superseded by Thomas Edison's incandescent lighting. Luna
Park was one of three amusement parks |
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The Edison Electric Illuminating Company opens a commercial electric generating station for incandescent lighting on Pearl Street in lower Manhattan. J.P. Morgan's mansion on Madison Avenue is the first private home to be completely fitted with incandescent lights.
Interior of the Pearl Street Central Station, ca. 1880s |
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Cedar water tanks, placed on top of buildings, are introduced.
The New Croton Aqueduct opens, providing the City with 300 million gallons of water a day. Croton Dam, a part of the Croton Aqueduct that still brings much of the water from upstate New York to New York City, 1920 |
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Consolidated Edison results from the merger of Edison Illuminating Company with Consolidated Gas, owned by John D. Rockefeller and William Whitney. Cover of the Edison Illuminating Co.'s magazine, 1898 |
 Edison National Historic Site |
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Brooklyn
Union Gas Co. emergency wagon. The introduction of gas to homes meant
repair crews had to be ready to go at a moment's notice. Brooklyn Daily
Eagle Collection, John Kronenberger, photographer, 1909
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The new Catskill Aqueduct, costing $277 million, brings water from 100 miles north of Manhattan. The Croton Aqueduct system is no longer able to be the sole provider of the City’s water supply. | |||
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To facilitate rain during a drought, the City seeds clouds over the reservoirs. | |||
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Brooklyn
Union Gas Co.'s Nancy Broadhurst demonstrates the extra-wide capacity
of
the newly released Roper range. Brooklyn Daily Eagle Collection, 1953. |
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Con Edison is the first firm in the United States to receive a license for construction of a commercial nuclear power plant. Unit #1 at Indian Point in Buchanan, New York goes on-line in 1962.
Consolidated Edison's Indian Point Nuclear Plant, 1975 |
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The City begins connecting the Brooklyn and Queens water tunnels 600 feet underground, the most expensive Capital project to date in the City’s history. Tunnel No. 3, slated for completion in 2020, will bring in a billion gallons of water a water.
Officials in City Tunnel #8 (Water), (undated) |
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Compressed
natural gas, a clean alternative energy source, is first used in the City’s
official vehicles.
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Low-flow toilets – 1.6 gallons – begin to replace the 3.5-gallon flush. |
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The
first 13.5-mile segment of water tunnel No. 3 opens, and water flows from
a Yonkers reservoir into City homes.
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