Puget Sound Energy’s Snoqualmie Falls Hydroelectric Project, built in the late 1890s about 30 miles east of Seattle, is one of the Northwest’s oldest hydropower facilities. Its Plant 1 powerhouse, just upstream from the falls, was the world’s first hydroelectric plant built completely underground. The energy project’s public park and trails are one of the Northwest’s most-visited tourist destinations.
Read more about the facility in our Energy Supply pages.
"The Power of Snoqualmie Falls"
For time immemorial Snoqualmie Falls has been a sacred site to the Pacific Northwests native people, a place whose thundering waters and soaring mists harbor deep spiritual power. In the 1880s, a young man gazed upon Snoqualmie Falls magnificent, cascading flows and envisioned an entirely different kind of power. Here is the story of that enterprising civil engineer and his remarkable quest to harness Snoqualmie Falls energy and build the worlds first completely underground hydropower plant, deep within towering falls granite shoulder.