as nyse wgl industry utilities founded 1848 headquarters washington d.c. coordinates 38 53 34 n 77 00 47 w 38.8926815 n 77.0131214 w 38.8926815 ; 77.0131214 coordinates 38 53 34 n 77 00 47 w 38.8926815 n 77.0131214 w 38.8926815 ; 77.0131214 areas served united states key people terry d. mccallister chairman & ceo products gas utilities revenue us 2.466 billion 2013 1 operating income us 166 million 2013 1 net income us 80 million 2013 1 total assets us 4.260 billion 2013 1 number of employees 1 444 q4 2014 2 subsidiaries washington gas hampshire gas washington gas resources corporation crab run gas company slogan energy answers . ask us . website www.wglholdings.com wgl holdings inc. is a public utility holding company located in the united states that serves customers in the district of columbia maryland and virginia . the company s washington gas light company subsidiary distributes natural gas to more than one million customers . wgl is a diversified energy business that provides natural gas electricity green power carbon reduction and energy services and natural gas exploration production and storage though its subsidiaries including washington gas washington energy services wgl midstream and hampshire gas . contents 1 history 1.1 genesis 1.2 1850 1900 1.3 20th century 2 present day 3 references 4 external links history edit washington gas logo genesis edit washington d.c. was decades slower than some other eastern u.s. cities to move from candles or oil to gas for lighting . baltimore was first in 1816 ; new york city was partially lighted with gas in 1825 . citation needed in 1840 when a gas company for washington remained only a proposal a u.s. senate document argued for gas salutary effect on the local economy fancy and other stores would introduce this light and thus add to the cheerfulness of the public ways . citation needed among the early proponents of gas was james crutchett who bought a house north of the capitol grounds and lit it with gas . this drew the attention of congress which voted him 17 500 to light up the capitol and helped encourage public support for wider use of gas . a supporter of crutchett s ideas was benjamin b. french chief clerk of the house of representatives who helped attract other important supporters including william a. bradley the city s postmaster and mayor ; john f. callan a druggist ; his brother michael p. callan a post office clerk ; hardware merchant william h. harrover ; william h. english a treasury clerk who became a congressman from indiana and later a vice presidential candidate ; and jacob bigelow an attorney and abolitionist who later helped escaped slave ann maria weems . 3 two petitions were sent to congress in april 1848 and on july 8 of that year lawmakers issued the first congressional charter for a company that would extract gas from coal . citation needed at last the nation s capital had its first gas company the washington gas light company . 4 the company was established on the tenth street of the foggy bottom neighborhood and eventually led to the area s urbanization . citation needed 1850 1900 edit george washington riggs became the president of the company in 1856 . two years later the company began to build a new more efficient factory the west station works between 26th and g streets nw . meanwhile a new plant was constructed in foggy bottom in 1858 at the intersection of new hampshire and virginia avenues nw . this location at the head of the chesapeake and ohio canal gave it access to barges carrying coal from west virginia and pennsylvania . these plants changed the neighborhood . between 1830 and 1860 the percentage of skilled laborers in the foggy bottom neighborhood declined from 44 % to 23 % while the percentage of unskilled laborers rose to 44 % . 5 during the american civil war coal and transportation grew scarce . the cost of making gas increased one hundred and twenty five percent and another problem appeared when congress reduced the gas rate seventeen percent . 6 the company sought help from the secretary of war and from president abraham lincoln who he wrote to john w. garrett president of the baltimore and ohio railroad asking him to bring coal to the city and afford the continuation of the necessary gas lighting . 7 production levels for gas went down during the civil war they soon returned to normal . in the 1870s several large holding tanks gasometers were erected at the foggy bottom site . in 1878 thomas edison introduced the incandescent lamp a threat to the company . in 1891 one of the gasometers exploded ; the cause was attributed to a large storm . 8 20th century edit gas furnaces began to appear in 1915 ; some remain in use today . 9 in 1947 the industry expanded to 22 million customers . 10 11 the foggy bottom plant operated until the 1950s . in 1964 the washington gas light company sold development rights for the location in a deal that stipulated that the new structure would be supplied exclusively by the company . 12 the last building of the watergate was completed in 1971 . in 1997 in response to newly deregulated gas and energy markets washington gas formed washington gas resources corp to serve as a holding company for non utility subsidiaries . also in 1997 the company created an unregulated energy company washington gas energy services as a subsidiary of that holding company . 13 washington gas energy services started with just a handful of customers and as of 2014 had grown into an 8.0 million company . 14 present day edit nineteenth century traces of the gas company include the civil war era aqueduct across rock creek park between the georgetown and foggy bottom neighborhoods . gas and electric streetlamps installed by the company can still be found in georgetown on the main streets near virginia and new hampshire avenues and even past foggy bottom . in 2013 the company rebranded itself as wgl with the goal of being a new kind of energy company answer oriented technology and data driven responsive and built for the complex energy markets of today and tomorrow . 15 this rebrand included the renaming of washington gas energy services to wgl energy and the inclusion of the term a wgl company under the traditional washington gas logo . references edit a b c d wgl holdings inc. wgl holdings ltd. 2013 fact sheet pdf . wgl holdings ltd. retrieved 2015 08 17 . bloomberg l.p. wgl holdings inc. wgl new york consolidated . bloomberg l.p. retrieved 2015 08 17 . snodgrass mary ellen the underground railroad an encyclopedia of people places and operations routledge 2015 p 54 townsend george alfred 1874 . new washington or the renovated capital city . washington dc chronicle pub . sherwood suzanne 1978 . foggy bottom 1800 1975 a study in the uses of an urban neighborhood . washington dc george washington university . hershman robert 1948 . growing with washington . washington washington gas light company . p. 46 . hershman robert 1948 . growing with washington . washington dc washington gas light company . p. 47 . death in the tornado fatal collapse of the new metzerott music hall . washington post . november 24 1891 . hershman robert 1948 . growing with washington . washington washington gas light company . p. 79 . hershman robert 1948 . growing with washington . washington washington gas light company . p. 80 . hershman robert 1948 . growing with washington . washington washington gas light company . p. 81 . watergate gas co. sign unusual pact . washington post . september 9 1964 . pietropaoli edward 2012 . growing with washington part ii . washington washington gas . p. 85 http www.wglholdings.com 2014 corporate performance report index.html accessed 8 18 2015 http www.wglholdings.com 2014 corporate performance report index.html accessed 8 18 2015 external links edit wgl holdings washington gas retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title washington gas & oldid 733423082 categories companies listed on the new york stock exchangecompanies based in washington d.c.natural gas companies of the united stateshidden categories coordinates not on wikidataall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from june 2015 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 7 august 2016 at 18 30 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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