Picture a town where the only light at night comes from candles and oil lamps. Now imagine flipping a switch and flooding the streets with bright white light. That is exactly what happened in Wabash, Indiana, on March 31, 1880. The town installed four Brush arc lamps on top of the courthouse dome. When the lamps flickered to life, Wabash became the first city in the world fully lit by electric street lights. Thousands of people came from nearby towns to see the spectacle. The local newspaper reported that citizens stood in the streets, staring up in amazement. The lights were so bright that people could read a newspaper outdoors at night. Before this moment, gas lamps were the best technology for lighting streets. They gave off a dim, yellowish glow and needed to be lit by hand every evening. Electric arc lamps were different. They used electricity to create a brilliant white light far brighter than any flame. After Wabash proved that electric lighting worked, cities across America raced to install their own. Within a few years, New York and San Francisco had electric street lights too. One small town had shown the world what the future looked like.