Hydroelectricity Comes of Age

Hydroelectricity Comes of Age. . ,

"There is a lively demand for electric power..."

–William de la Barre, Report upon the Projected Addition to the Water Power at the Saint Anthony Falls at Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1894, The river dropped about 45' at Saint Anthony Falls, then descended another 20' in the rapids below. Between 1895 and 1897, the waterpower companies built the Lower Dam at the bottom of the rapids to create a pool below the falls. A hydroelectric plant on the dam captured the waterpower., Just downstream from where you stand, construction began on another hydroelectric plant at Saint Anthony Falls a decade later. The Hennepin Island plant was considered "somewhat novel" by a writer for the Electric Railway Journal. Waterpower rights at the falls were leased or owned, so the plant used only water that was surplus after others had taken their allocation. The plant was also "ready to use water when the other lessees shut down their wheels, as they do on Sunday and holidays.", The foundation of the Lower Dam hydroelectric plant failed during a flash flood in 1987 and the plant was removed. The Hennepin Island plant is the only historic hydroelectric station still generating power at the falls., "In 1878 there were five little bob-tailed horse cars in operation in Minneapolis. In 1903 there are more than 600 wheeled electric cars of high speed and great carrying capacity." – "Electrical Progress of Twenty-five Years," Minneapolis Journal, 1903, Early twentieth-century construction equipment–a horse and wagon–crosses three gates for the Hennepin Island hydroelectric plant. You can see the completed gates, which control the amount of water entering the power plant's "headrace" canal, to your right., "Sandrock forms the foundation of the Hennepin Island plant. When properly protected, it makes a perfectly safe and solid foundation, and in its virgin state is so hard that a pick will make scarcely an impression upon it, but when subjected to the action of the weather it rapidly disintegrates." – "Power Generating System and Records of the Twin City Rapid Transit Company," Electric Railway Journal, 1909, All the electricity from the Lower Dam and Hennepin Island power plants was purchased by the Twin City Rapid Transit Company, which also built a steam-powered generating plant near the Lower Dam to supply the heavy demand. Horses pulled the city's streetcars until [???] after a su[???] cars the transit company converted the entire fleet within three years, installing miles of [??] tracks and overhead powerlines. At the same time it connected the Minneapolis and Saint Paul lines. By 1916, the system had over 400 miles of tracks extending from Lake Minnetonka to Stillwater. By 1954, though, buses completely replaced streetcars.