New York City has a rich history as the birthplace of the electric grid as we know it today. Join Women's Energy Network on a guided history bike tour of the NYC Electric Grid! This ride is intentionally planned on a Sunday morning when streets are quieter. We will begin at Pearl and Fulton and end at the Morgan Library, for a total ride of about 5 miles.

This will be a bike ride and talk led by Rich Miller, who previously was both NYC Energy Policy Chief (1998-2003) and Vice-President for Energy and Environmental Law at Con Edison. He has authored articles on the history of electricity and New York City's role.

The modern electricity grid began in Lower Manhattan on September 4, 1882, when Thomas Edison started up the first grid based electric system with a power plant located on Pearl Street. This trip/talk will focus on how this happened and transformed New York City and the world. The trip/talk will also discuss two other prominent persons from this time. Nikola Tesla, who had laboratories at 89 Liberty Street and near Washington Square Park; and JP Morgan who had an Edison electric generator in his house at 35th and Madison Avenue in 1881, which was used to make it the first house in New York City with electric lighting.

Please arrive with a bicycle and water. Helmets are strongly encouraged. You can use a CitiBike for this tour, but you may occasionally miss some content when docking/undocking (we will share location so that you can always find your way back to the group).

We will ride rain or shine!

Questions? Reach out to Charlotte Fagan at charlotte.fagan@gmail.com