Manhattan power outage third big one in 16 years

September 11, 1981

An explosion and fire in a power station -- believed caused by an electrical malfunction -- blacked out sections of Manhattan from Times Square to Wall Street, trapping hundreds in elevators, slowing street traffic and subways, and shutting down the stock exchanges. Wednesday's 4 1/2-hour outage was New York's third major blackout in 16 years.