The Great White Way (the origin)

Here's a bit of theatre trivia for you:

Have you ever wondered why Broadway is called the Great White Way?  I wondered and this is what I found on Wikipedia:

"Great White Way is a nickname for a section of Broadway in the Midtown section of the New York City borough of Manhattan, specifically the portion that encompasses the Theatre District, between 42nd and 53rd Streets, and encompassing Times Square.[citation needed]

Nearly a mile of Broadway was illuminated in 1880 by Brush arc lamps, making it among the first electrically-lighted streets in the United States.[citation needed]

The headline "Found on the Great White Way" appeared in the February 3, 1902, edition of the New York Evening Telegram.[citation needed] The journalistic sobriquet was inspired by the millions of lights on theater marquees and billboard advertisements that illuminate the area, especially around Times Square.[citation needed]

from the Wikipedia article "Broadway (New York City) found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_White_Way#Great_White_Way