Electric arc light over San Diego Barracks in 1886. San Diego Bay and Point Loma are in the background. The first arc light was placed at Fifth and F Street on March 16, 1886. Powered by an electrical plant at Second and J Street, the lights burned from sundown to midnight in clusters of six lamps on top of 125-foot steel masts. The daily carbon replacement and lamp adjustment made the lights very labor-intensive. Mast climber Carl Wiggins serviced a dozen towers a day, making his rounds on a bicycle.