(modem connecting) (modem connecting) VOICE (over computer): Welcome.

STEVE: You've got mail.

NARRATOR: In 1990, few had even heard of the Internet.

STEVE: Well, the Internet really was invented here in D.C.

I have to remind my friends in Silicon Valley that Silicon Valley wouldn't exist but for D.C. because the government of half a century ago funded the basic research that created the Internet.

COKIE: In Washington, nobody had heard of it except the Defense Department, and I don't think they wanted the rest of us to know.

NARRATOR: A Washington-area start-up changed everything.

STEVE: In 1992, we took the company public.

It was the first Internet company to go public.

Back then, we had something like $30 million of revenue, less than 200,000 customers.

NARRATOR: By 1997, it seemed like everyone had popped the AOL disc into their computer.

WEASEL: Remember those CDs that we used to get in the mail, like, every other week?

COKIE: I remember my nephew signing me up for AOL and sitting me down at the computer and picking my password.

It was mom123.

WEASEL: I had, I think, weasel991@aol.

And we would encourage people to basically email us your request.

BB: I still have my AOL account, I never closed it.

NARRATOR: It took Washington a while to adjust to the brave new world.

STEVE: Probably wasn't till the mid-90s where people finally started taking us seriously.

We went from a company that nobody knew about or cared about to a company that people were paying attention to.

COKIE: The idea that a whole new industry would come to the Washington area and create a whole dynamic, interesting group of people who would move here for some reason other than government was a new thing.

And that really did start with AOL.

NARRATOR: For more clips and to watch the full program visit weta.org/decades