Fearing electricity: overhead wire panic in New York City

Many historians have portrayed the late nineteenth century as a period of great technological utopianism or enthusiasm. Closely intertwined with this technological enthusiasm, however, was also a strong strand of technological pessimism. Americans of this period desired innovations like electric lighting and communication, rapid transit, and gas cooking and heating, but they also feared the physical hazards created by these innovations. They believed that new technology would improve society, but at the same time worried that they had no control over the pace and direction of this change. An early example of the technological pessimism of this period was the electric wire panic that took place in New York City in the 1880s. At this time, the streets of the city were darkened by dangerous, overhead electric wires. The failure of the city to bury these wires, along with debate over electrical safety, generated great fear of electricity. This fear reached its height in 1889 when a series of horrible electrical accidents terrorized the city. Despite their fears, most New Yorkers found it impossible to give up electrical technology. The tension between technological enthusiasm and pessimism created a profound anxiety about electricity and the new urban world it was creating.