If you were on a NYC Transit subway during the rush hour on Nov. 9, 1965, you were among about 800,000 other unlucky riders trapped underground due to a blackout that plunged 80,000 square miles of the U.S. into total darkness. Those on elevators in the city fared no better. New York City was without power for over 13 hours.

A massive electric power failure starting in western New York state at 5:16 p.m., Nov. 9, 1965, reached New York City at 5:27 p.m. at the height of the rush hour. The blackout affected much of northeastern U.S. and Ontario and Quebec in Canada. More than 30 million people were left “powerless.�

The lights and the power went out first at 5:17 p.m. somewhere along the Niagara frontier of New York state. Nobody could tell why for hours afterward. Within four minutes, the line of darkness had plunged across Massachusetts all the way to Boston. It was like a pattern of falling dominoes — darkness sped southward through Connecticut, northward into Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Canada.

At 5:27 p.m., the lights began sputtering in New York City, and within seconds the giant Consolidated Edison system blacked out in Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens and most of Brooklyn — but not in Staten Island or parts of Brooklyn that were interconnected with the Public Service Electric and Gas Company of New Jersey. Power from this source kept Miss Liberty illuminated through the blackout.

New Yorkers, who are used to living through all sorts of crises, seemed to take the blackout in stride. With little means of transportation available, thousands walked across the Queensboro and Brooklyn bridges.

The Transit Authority and the Police Department worked into the early hours of the morning attempting to remove passengers from crowded, stalled subway cars. At midnight, food was sent to some 10,000 passengers who were still waiting to be escorted out along the narrow catwalks in dark tunnels and high above rivers and streets. Despite the anxious condition, no panic was reported, although there was confusion and fear in some of the 600 trains when they first stalled on the system’s tracks.

There was a run on stores selling candles, flashlights, batteries and portable radios. Bars filled quickly as customers drank by candlelight. Airplanes found themselves circling, unable to land.

There was remarkably little civil disorder in the city, unlike the city-wide blackout in July of 1977 when more than 3,000 persons were arrested for looting, rioting, and arson. Damage in Downtown Brooklyn, East Harlem and the Upper West Side exceeded $300 million.

The largest blackout, in August 2003, affected not only New York City but the entire Northeast. Because traffic lights failed, volunteers had to direct traffic. It took three days to overcome the blackout, with some neighborhoods “turning on� before others.

— V.P.

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