ancient-one
US Veteran
I was watching the lights out bit in NYC and for no reason at all I wondered how many miles of wiring are strung through a city that size. I am sure that someone here has the answer.
Never thought about this before
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I was there, Upper West Side, during a blackout in the mid '70s. We stayed in, and were in no danger, but there was a fair amount of looting going on. NYC, thankfully, is a lot more civilized nowadays.
(Kinda makes me smile when folks nowadays talk about being reluctant to visit the Big Bad City.
)
Just came across a news article on the mid 70's event: Google News - On the exact same day 42 years ago, a New York power outage turned into a crime rampage
(Kinda makes me smile when folks nowadays talk about being reluctant to visit the Big Bad City.
)Just came across a news article on the mid 70's event: Google News - On the exact same day 42 years ago, a New York power outage turned into a crime rampage
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Everything in NYC is over a century old. Water and sewer pipes, subways, electric lines and phone lines, although no one uses the phones anymore. Joe
bigwheelzip
Absent Comrade
Well Graydon, the sub-surface of NYC is a maze of utilities and infrastructure. The main electric utility, Consolidated Edison, also distributes gas and steam. They have a corporate facts web site that lists 130,000 miles of cable with their system.
Corporate Facts | Con Edison
Corporate Facts | Con Edison
bigwheelzip
Absent Comrade
Daniel Howe
US Veteran
In 2009 I was hired to give advise on power requirements and layout for a 2,500 machine casino. Best guess we could make at the time was 25 miles, for power, lighting, sound and accounting systems. I could not imagine how much would be in a city if you counted homes and businesses.
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More than likely, just like most things in any big city, the infrastructure is totally outdated, in ill repair, neglected, patched and basically operating on a thread and a prayer. In order for these cities to update, correctly repair and modernize they must refrain on give-a-ways, public handouts, etc which they are adamantly against - so good luck to them! Almost every large City already taxes their residents beyond what is palatable so another large increase might sink the ship.
Even if they know or find out exactly what happened, they will more than likely blame it on something else as to not be embarrassed or criticized.
Even if they know or find out exactly what happened, they will more than likely blame it on something else as to not be embarrassed or criticized.
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OP
ancient-one
US Veteran
That evidently includes cables that have lots of separate wires in them. Figure them in and I'll bet you are in the millions of miles.
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Milton
US Veteran
Man !!! That would make some copper haul!!!
When it gets old and fails, it gets replaced and probably upgraded. It's like natural selection or a Darwin award.
