The advent of steam power solved one problem – the ability to produce electricity – and created another – how to transmit it from generator to destination. Only short power lines existed; in effect, the only power generation that existed was local. Smoke-gushing local power plants rose up next to residential buildings and schools, laying down a thick layer of soot over everything. It was a problem so severe that Thomas Edison himself sought to figure out a solution.

On this day, June 3, in 1864 an experiment succeeded in the first transmission of electric current over long-distance power line. The line was strung from Portland, Oregon to the generator in 14 miles away in Willamette Falls.

The Portland line powered fifty street lights, and proved power transmission over long distance was feasible. It also inspired for the first time the serious consideration of waterfalls as electric power sources, setting in motion the great Niagara Falls power station that would be built decades later. The only caveat was the transmission was still far from efficient: over than 14-mile course, some 25% of the power was lost.