Washington Gas Light Company

WGL Holdings, Inc.

Type	Public
Traded as	: WGL S&P 400 Component
Industry	Utilities
Founded	1848
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.
Areas served	United States
Key people	Terry D. McCallister (Chairman & CEO)
Products	Gas Utilities
Revenue	US$2.466 billion (2013)
Operating income	US$166 million (2013)
Net income	US$80 million (2013)
Total assets	US$4.260 billion (2013)
Number of employees	1,444 (Q4 2014)
Subsidiaries	Washington Gas Hampshire Gas Washington Gas Resources Corporation Crab Run Gas Company
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.

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. 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."

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.

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. At last, the nation's capital had its first gas company, the Washington Gas Light Company. The company was established on the tenth street of the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, and eventually led to the area's urbanization.