New York City and much of the Northeast were paralyzed by a sudden blackout August 14th and 15th that stopped 50 million people in their tracks.
From New Jersey all the way to Toronto, trains stopped, computers crashed, planes were grounded, air conditioners cut off and thousands of homes and businesses were plunged into darkness by the largest power outage in the nation's history.
In the city, rush-hour subway riders were trapped in the tunnels and the streets were gripped by gridlock, forcing thousands to hoof it home through the sweltering evening heat over the crowded bridges.
In the blackout region, 21 power plants shut down, affecting Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Newark and Ottawa, Canada.
It was 4:11 p.m. when the lights went out in New York. Four hours later, the city's famed skyline formed an eerie silhouette against a moonlit summer night. Stars could be seen for the first time in recent memory.
By 11 p.m., lights flickered sporadically in some city neighborhoods, and Mayor Bloomberg said there should be power by this morning — but no subway service until later.
His advice for today? "Treat it like a snow day: Get up and listen to the radio," the mayor said.
Still, he added, "It wouldn't be the worst thing to take the day off."
Unlike the 1977 blackout, which was marked by riots and looting, the city was mostly calm. In the most serious incident, a police SWAT team besieged a bank in Harlem after an alarm went off, and some looting was reported in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
Officials quickly ruled out terrorism. Canadian officials blamed a lightning strike that knocked out a power plant upstate, on the Canadian border. But the cause was far from clear.
Automatic shutdown
"Like most New Yorkers, we were taken by surprise," said Con Edison spokesman Michael Clendenin.
He said computers automatically shut down the system when when the flow of outside electricity into Con Ed's power lines can't keep up with demand.
"The system reacted as it should," he said. "It protected itself, and it shut down."
Shortly after the power went down, Bloomberg tried to allay fears in a city still scarred by the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack.
"There is no evidence whatsoever of terrorism," he said. "With a lot of luck, later on this evening, we will look back on this and say, 'Where were you when the lights went out?'"
President Bush warned that it could take time before life in the region gets back to normal.
"Slowly, but surely, we're coping with this massive, national problem," he said.
The blackout triggered a set of NYPD security precautions that were put in place after the World Trade Center attack, and within minutes heavily armed teams of special counter-terror officers were dispatched to city landmarks and other sensitive locations.
Fighter planes creased the sky as the military sent up an extra air patrol in the East as a precaution. Flights into area airports were diverted.
But there was remarkably little panic as New Yorkers dealt with the latest calamity to befall the city — and carried on.
