A massive blackout hit New York City 40 years ago today — here’s what it looked like

On July 13, 1977—40 years ago today—at approximately 9:36 p.m., New York City was plunged into darkness. Trains screeched to a halt, airports were shut down and baseball games were forced to postpone.

A lightning strike hit near Consolidated Edison’s Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant in Westchester County roughly 36 miles north of Manhattan, the New York Times reported the next day, setting off a destructive chain of events. Two other strikes from the same storm system overloaded substations and transmissions lines.

An hour later, the entire city's electrical system shut down.

Traffic was virtually non-existent, but hundreds of fires raged throughout the night, especially in Brooklyn where arson and looting were rampant.

A congressional study released a year later estimated the total damage at $300 million.

Luckily, news photographers and their analog cameras were still hard at work documenting the day. Here’s what the blackout looked like from the streets:

Manhattan's famous skyline became a silhouette when all five boroughs lost electricity around 9:30 pm on July 13, 1977

Commuters waiting on trains home were stranded at Grand Central Terminal after the power failure.

The station's famous opal-faced clock kept the correct time, but the larger one behind it is stuck on the time it lost power.

In Queens, the Mets and Cubs were six innings deep when the lights at Shea Stadium went out. The game was postponed until next month, when the Cubs won by a single run.

Seen from across the river in New Jersey, only the base of the World Trade Center's twin towers flickered with light.

New Yorkers that had been out were forced to walk home through empty streets.

But others opted to take advantage of the situation.

Drinkers in a midtown Manhattan bar continued their drinking by candlelight.

These revelers don't seem to be too downtrodden by the blackout.

The outage didn't stop the Plaza Hotel's famous Palm Court from continuing dinner service.

But things weren't so peaceful in other parts of the city where looting was rampant, like at this store on the Upper West Side where the owners stand guard with baseball bats.

Overnight, looting and arson wreaked havoc in Brooklyn. Firefighters responded to 1500 alarms, 400 of which turned out to be real fires.

In the 24 hours of the blackout, police arrested an estimated 3,000 looting suspects

Here firefighters battle a blaze above a row of looted stores in Brooklyn.

New Yorkers woke up to headlines explaining the power failure's cause next to reports of looters and trapped commuters.

When the sun finally rose 12 hours into the outage, streets were littered with people and debris.

Wednesday's morning rush hour was almost silent. The Long Island Expressway and approach to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel was deserted.

Streets that were normally clogged with traffic, like Manhattan's Madison Avenue, were completely devoid of traffic.

Good Samaritans like this man helped keep the few remaining motorists safe by directing traffic.

Here a cyclist takes advantage of a car-less Fifth Avenue, which would have normally been a parking lot at this time of the afternoon.

Wall Street was also empty after the New York Stock exchange was forced to close because of the power failure.

This subway platform at Rockefeller Center was empty at 5 p.m., when it would have usually been jam packed with rush hour commuters.

Eventually, night fell once again on the powerless city, but resilient New Yorkers knew how to keep spirits bright.

Power was finally restored just over 24 hours after the blackout began. Even without power, the view of Manhattan over the East River is a magnificent sight.

A massive blackout hit New York City 40 years ago today — here’s what it looked like

Enhance Your Pulse News Experience!

JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!