Lighting Up Minneapolis, 1883
Like other American cities, Minneapolis at night had been lit by dim gaslight until the advent of Charles F. Brush’s electric arc lamps. This photograph marks the opening day, February 28, 1883, of Minneapolis’s new era: the first lighting of a 257-foot tower topped by a ring of electric arc lamps. The electric poles on the right, connecting the tower to a power station, would soon proliferate into a blizzard of poles and overhead wires, as Minneapolis became an electric city. © Minnesota Historical Society/CORBIS.