[Illustration: Snoqualmie Falls, 270 Feet High.]
The colossal power plant at Electron is not the only enterprise of
its kind that is contributing to the industrial growth of TACOMA. The
Cascade Mountains are the source of many rivers which have filed out deep
canyons and here and there plunge over lofty precipices seeking ocean
level in Puget Sound not many miles away. The first of the waterfalls
in the foothills of the Cascades to be harnessed to generate electric
power for transmission to the Puget Sound cities was Snoqualmie Falls,
270 feet in height, or nearly twice as high as the falls of the Niagara
River. A plant generating 10,000-horse power was installed at Snoqualmie
Falls about four years ago, a large share of the product of which is
transmitted to TACOMA, forty-four miles distant, where it is employed for
city lighting and important industrial purposes, such as supplying power
to the Tacoma Smelter, Tacoma Grain Company’s flour mills, and many other
manufacturing enterprises.
[Illustration:
1—Union Club House.
2—Telephone Exchange.
3—Sheard Building.
4—New Public Library.
]
A fire destroyed the transformer house at the Snoqualmie Falls power
plant September 20, 1903. A new fire-proof transformer house has
been erected in which four transformers of 2,500 kilowatts, or about
3,300-horse power each, have been installed in place of a battery of
thirteen 550 kilowatt transformers, thus increasing the capacity of the
transformers by more than 4,000-horse power.
The product of the Snoqualmie power plant was in use up to its limit when
the fire of September, 1903, occurred, and the Tacoma Cataract Company,
distributors of the Snoqualmie power in this city, had already begun
the construction of an auxiliary steam power plant on the tideflats at
TACOMA, which was completed and placed in operation December 20, 1903. It
adds 1,500-horse power to the product of the Snoqualmie Falls power plant
employed at TACOMA.