1—Puget Sound Flouring Mills. 2—Pacific Brewing Company’s Plant. 3—Dry Dock at Quartermaster Harbor. 4—Power House of White River Power Company. ]
The water from this enlarged lake reservoir will be led through a channel into a masonry penstock whence pressure pipes will conduct it down a declivity to the site of the power house, within ten miles of TACOMA, giving a fall of 485 feet. At the foot of these pipes the power house, 105×250 feet, will be constructed, as shown on the opposite page, and the water will thence be released into the Stuck River. A short transmission line will conduct the power to the Tacoma Cataract Company building in this city, whence a large share of the present output of the Snoqualmie Falls power plant is now distributed to consumers, public and private, in TACOMA.
[Illustration: Nisqually River at Its Source in a Glacier.]
There are many other rivers or streams fed by the glaciers and snows of Mount Tacoma which may and will be utilized for generating electrical power as rapidly as required. The Tacoma Industrial Company has recently bought a continuous strip four miles in length, including the White River, and is making preparations to install a 15,000-horse power plant twelve miles from TACOMA. The Nisqually River, which flows into the Sound south of TACOMA, has enormous undeveloped power resources. Within thirty miles of TACOMA, at Le Grand, a station on the Tacoma Eastern, on the brink of the Nisqually Canyon, is an available and accessible water power capable of generating 30,000-horse power. TACOMA commands the use of from 150,000 to 200,000-horse power as soon as required.
_NO OTHER SEAPORT IN THE WORLD HAS SUCH ABUNDANT RESOURCES OF CHEAP POWER FOR MANUFACTURING PURPOSES._
_POWER IS BEING DELIVERED TO THE CITY OF TACOMA FOR PUMPING AND LIGHTING PURPOSES AT THE LOWEST CONTRACT PRICES AT WHICH POWER IS OBTAINED AT ANY CITY IN THE WORLD._
_MANUFACTURERS AT TACOMA ARE OBTAINING ELECTRIC POWER AT A LOWER PRICE THAN THAT AT WHICH POWER IS OBTAINABLE AT ANY OTHER TIDEWATER PORT IN THE UNITED STATES._
_TACOMA IS THE ELECTRIC CITY OF THE PACIFIC COAST._
Another important factor in TACOMA’S industrial development, past, present and future, is its proximity and convenient access to the natural products or raw materials employed in manufacturing. TACOMA is the point at which the leading staple products of Washington are chiefly assembled for manufacture and distribution. The resources of “Wonderful Washington” are manifold. The products of the mines, the forests, the farms and ranches, and of the waters are of untold value to the world. TACOMA’S geographical position is such that she commands these products as does no other point in the pacific Northwest. The great Olympic Peninsula between Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean is surrounded by water on three sides. Railroads are required to bring its products to tidewater, and TACOMA, at the head of ocean navigation on the Sound, is in closest proximity of all the Sound ports to this section rich in timber and mineral resources. South, southeast, east and northeast of TACOMA are equally rich sections of territory extending from the Sound on the north and west to the Columbia River on the south and to the ridge line of the Cascade Mountains on the east, whose treasures of agricultural, mineral and forest wealth must seek the markets of the world through this port. TACOMA is the natural and exclusive outlet for the products of this region. Six steam and four electric railway lines radiating from TACOMA, and numerous steamers plying between TACOMA and the island and mainland ports of the Sound afford transportation facilities for the traffic of the immediate and more remote regions tributary to the city. Across and beyond the mountain passes lie the Yakima Valley, the “Inland Empire,” and the greater domain of the United States whose products seeking trans-pacific markets pass through this natural gateway to the Orient.