From candles and hand-dug wells to underground fiber and smart grids, the infrastructure that powers this country didn’t happen overnight.
While most of the 250th anniversary conversation will rightfully center on history, democracy, and everything in between, there’s another story worth telling. One that runs underground, overhead, and through the walls of every building in this country. The story of how America built its utilities from the ground up, and how companies like Danella are still writing that story today.
When the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, wood was the primary energy source in the United States, used for heating, cooking, and lighting. There was no electrical grid, no water treatment system, no gas lines, just hand-dug wells and open flames. The country that exists today would be completely unrecognizable to the people who founded it, and a huge part of that transformation comes down to the infrastructure built beneath our feet and above our heads over the last two and a half centuries.
THE EVOLUTION OF ENERGY
The first major power transition occurred in the mid-1800s, when coal became the predominant energy source, replacing wood. With this transition came the power needed for steam engines, helping industrialize America by powering trains, boats, and factories, and more.
Electricity, as we know it, had, in some capacity, always been available, whether in 660 BC with the ancient Greeks figuring out static electricity or in the vacuum tube experiments of the 1660s by Otto von Guericke (Germany) and Robert Boyle (Ireland). We most often associate the understanding of electricity here in America with Benjamin Franklin’s historic kite, key, and thunderstorm experiment in 1752, declaring that static electricity and lightning were the same thing. The first electric battery was invented in Italy by Alessandro Volta in 1800. Michael Faraday in England, in the 1830s, along with Joseph Henry in the US, figured out electromagnetic induction. Henry would go on to invent the electrical relay in 1835 to transmit current over long distances. While Thomas Davenport invented the electric motor in 1837. Circuits were soon understood, and along with magnetic theory, we saw the beginnings of electrical power.
In 1878, Thomas Edison founded the Edison Electric Light Co. in New York, purchasing patents to develop a practical, long-lasting light bulb. One year later, he had the incandescent light bulb that could last for 40 hours; the next year, it could be used for 1,200 hours. Lights were soon being implemented on streets, the first in Cleveland, OH. In 1879, the California Electric Light Company was the first to establish and sell electricity to customers, using two small generators.
In 1882, Thomas Edison opened the Pearl Street Station in Lower Manhattan, the first centralized electric power facility in the United States, paving the way for the modern age of electricity. From this point on, the transition took place very quickly with the establishment of an alternating current system to replace the direct current generated from his Pearl Street facility, the establishment of an extensive nationwide electric grid, and by the mid-1900s, petroleum became the primary energy source in the country, which continues to be true today.
FROM WELLS TO PIPES
There was a similar dramatic shift in the development of the nation’s water infrastructure. Efforts to provide safe drinking water date back to the beginnings of civilization with the development of canal systems and wells. The first noted public waterworks in the USA was in Bethlehem, PA, in 1755; Rhode Island followed in 1772, creating two private water delivery companies. Early American cities relied on shallow wells and local streams until rapid population growth made that impossible. New York alone tripled in population between 1800 and 1830, forcing the city to invest millions in canal and reservoir systems to import clean water from miles away—a pattern that played out in cities across the country as America grew. The Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s quickened this need as more of the population moved towards city living, and cities needed to prevent disease and put out fires. Water systems would shift from private to public, and cities would begin to dictate the development of services and connections.
By 1866, 136 water utilities existed in the United States increasing 100-fold by 1890. The utilities began to innovate, and in 1914, Drinking Water Standards were first adopted to help protect against the spread of disease and to adopt standard disinfectant methods. With the EPA’s development in the 1970s and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948, the US’s water management moved from local/state to federal management, setting national standards. Today, many water lines and mains are over 100 years old, made of cast iron and lead, and cannot meet the demands of 2026. With the continued intensification of urban development, upgrading and modernization are necessary for access.
TELEGRAPHS TAKE ON COMMUNICATION
Like electricity and water, the essence of communication has been around since cavemen. The evolution of the written word, the sending of letters since 500 BC, was the foundation of information sharing. Information relays, postal systems, and more developed, but would stay the same for centuries. However, communication quickly changed with the development of electricity. Originating in France in the early 1700s, the idea of the telegraph, in which electric signals would go along wires, was formulated. In 1798, a rough system was adopted in France, and the influence spread throughout Europe. The system was, however, faulty. In the United States, Samuel Morse began working on his version of the electric telegraph in 1832. He is known for his work despite many others having come before him, primarily because he secured political backing, created a recognizable code, and, in 1844, produced a working system that sent messages from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore. The foundation of the telegraph system was created, evolving, and reshaping. The US was fully connected coast to coast in 1861, and the first transatlantic telegraph line connecting to Europe was finished in 1866.
The telegraph became the foundation for many further inventions. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first successful telephone call. The radio and television networks developed soon after, and by 1969, the first version of the internet, ARPANET, was sending messages between UCLA and Stanford. In 1989, the World Wide Web was invented, linking hundreds of global internet networks into a single massive network. Soon after, wireless technologies began to pick up speed, and the development of communication technology has seemed to be in hyperdrive for the past few decades.
However, 250 years after our nation’s founding, infrastructure is still being built, maintained, upgraded, and expanded. From overhead electric and underground utilities to water systems, gas lines, communications, and more, Danella has spent over 54 years doing the work that keeps America running. The names on the infrastructure may change, the technology certainly has, but the commitment to building something that lasts? That hasn’t changed at all.
Happy 250th, America. Here’s to the next 250.
– Andrea Wentzell (Marketing & Benefits Manager) & Morgan Peta (Marketing Intern)
Sources: EIA.gov, Elon.edu, NationalAcademies.org, Stanford.edu, Pew.org