On August 14, 2003, a series of faults caused by tree branches touching power lines in Ohio, which were then complicated by human error, software issues, and equipment failures, led to the most widespread blackout in North American history. More than 50 million people across eight northeastern U.S. states and parts of Canada were left without power for at least 24 hours, and many of them were in the dark for weeks. In New York City, thousands of commuters were stranded when the power cut out late on a Thursday afternoon. Memories of the 9/11 attacks only two years earlier were fresh in people’s minds as scenes of thousands of people evacuating Manhattan on foot were replayed.
Photos: 15 Years Since the 2003 Northeast Blackout
1. People walk across the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City on August 14, 2003, after a blackout hit the city.
Peter Morgan / Reuters
2. People walk down the Brooklyn Bridge during a massive blackout on August 14, 2003, in New York City.
Jonathan Fickies / Getty
3. Peter Abeles, a professor at Columbia University, directs traffic at Sixth Avenue and 14th Street in New York during a power blackout on August 14, 2003.
Mike Appleton / AP
4. People stand in line and wait to use a payphone on Fifth Avenue in New York, during the blackout on August 14, 2003.
Rich Karackas / AP
5. New Yorkers have a drink outside Fiddler's Green on 48th Street while they wait for a way to get home during the power outage on August 14, 2003.
Mary Altaffer / AP
6. Passengers wait inside a stranded New York City subway train on August 14, 2013.
Robbie Bailey / AP
7. Transit workers escort riders off of a subway car, in background, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, on August 14, 2003.
Diane Bondareff / AP
8. New York City police direct traffic on August 14, 2003.
Spencer Platt / Getty
9. People sell beer on the street during the blackout in New York City on August 14, 2003.
Spencer Platt / Getty
10. People line up to buy batteries for their flashlights at a hardware store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on August 14, 2003.
Diane Bondareff / AP
11. Commuters walk up the entrance ramp to the Queensboro Bridge in New York, as a police officer directs traffic, on August 14, 2003.
David Karp / AP
12. Commuters catch a ride in the back of a delivery truck as others walk up the entrance ramp to the Queensboro Bridge on August 14, 2003.
David Karp / AP
13. Commuters walk over the Queensboro Bridge with traffic stopped in gridlock on August 14, 2003.
Sean M. Thompson / AP
14. People try to board the back of a crowded New York bus during the blackout on August 14, 2003.
Gregory Bull / AP
15. The Parliament Buildings of Ottawa, Canada's capital, sit in darkness during the massive blackout.
Rick Friedman / Corbis via Getty
16. The dark Manhattan skyline, seen from Queens, on August 15, 2003.
Patricia McDonnell / AP
17. Patrons continue to eat and drink at the Rink Bar at Rockefeller Center, in New York, shortly after nightfall on August 14, 2003.
Malcolm Linton / AP
18. People move around Times Square without the convenience of electricity on August 14, 2003.
Chip East / Reuters
19. People walk down the street with candles during the power outage in New York City on August 14, 2003.
Spencer Platt / Getty
20. Cars try to navigate their way through New York City during the blackout on August 14, 2003.
Frank Franklin II / AP
21. Commuters sleep on the steps of the Central Post Office in New York during the early hours of August 15, 2003, after being stranded following the city's blackout.
Mike Appleton / AP
22. People line up at a hot-dog cart on Yonge Street in Toronto on August 14, 2003.
David Lucas / Reuters
23. People lay stranded outside the Times Square Marriott in the early morning of August 15, 2003.
Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
24. A man sits on the sidewalk in a dark Times Square early on August 15, 2003.
Peter Morgan / Reuters
25. A man buys a newspaper outside of New York's Penn Station on August 15, 2003.
Jeff Christensen / Reuters
26. Improvising in the blackout, the college student Shmuel Aziza powers his laptop computer off of a car battery beside Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters, on August 15, 2003, in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Kathy Willens / AP
27. Products in the dairy section that went unrefrigerated due to the blackout are marked to be thrown out at a grocery store in New York on August 15, 2003.
Mike Appleton / AP
28. New York residents congregated outside during the second day of the massive blackout.
Andrew Lichtenstein / Corbis via Getty
29. Several hundred people wait for buses in New York on August 15, 2003. Most train service was knocked out after the power outage, and the commuters shown here, many of whom spent the night in the city, were boarding buses that would take them to a connection with a diesel-powered train outside the city.
Peter Morgan / Reuters
30. In the Soho neighborhood, a restaurant cook and his customers make the best of the massive power outage by setting up a barbecue on the street.
Andrew Lichtenstein / Corbis via Getty