# Pearl Street Station begins commercial electric service in New York

Date: 1882

## The fact

On 4 September 1882 [Edison](/people/thomas-edison)’s Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan began supplying direct-current electricity to nearby customers. It is a dated utility opening, not a national grid.

## Context

The station used coal-fired steam engines and Edison dynamos. Fire, load, and the short reach of DC were known limits. London and other demonstrations exist; this Fact is Pearl Street’s commercial start.

Thomas Edison is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

IEEE/ETHW’s Pearl Street article and Con Edison’s corporate history independently date 4 September 1882.

Official or archival record: ETHW — Pearl Street Station (https://ethw.org/Pearl_Street_Station; IEEE / ETHW).

## Significance

High confidence on the opening date.

A district station is not the 1930s grid. Do not back-date rural electrification.

## What is established and what is not

Established: Pearl Street in commercial service 4 September 1882. Not established: universal urban electrification, or that AC distribution was already chosen.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

## People

- Thomas Edison: https://factrail.ai/people/thomas-edison

## Drivers

- Energy Security: https://factrail.ai/drivers/energy-security

## Sources

- https://www.coned.com/en/about-us/corporate-facts/history-of-con-edison
- https://ethw.org/Pearl_Street_Station

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/us-edison-pearl-street-1882