The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-24
TALLULAHF ALLS
 ID bE HARNESSED GeOrgia's Gem to Be Marred
 By Industry IS A GREAT PROJECT Will Be Largest Power Plant Save One East of the Rocky Noun
 tains-Bond Issue Has
 Been Sold
IS A GREAT PROJECT

l Atlanta, April 23.-(Special )-Tallu- lah falls, which for how many thou sands of years, no one knows, have poured their mighty waters over cliffs of solid rock, are at last to be put to work for the benefit of man.
 Heretofore they have given him their beauty alone, and gorgeous beauty 1t is, wild and appealing beauty that l fascinates and makes one look and look and then want to look longer from the dizzy heights down into the depths Of 1 the great chasm where sh ger distance lends it's enchantment and the sunshine throws the color spectrum through the mists arising from the splash of falling waters.
 Now these magnificent falls are to supply utility; they are to be made to work, to do things, to take the place of coal, to turn wheels, to keep machinery in motion to light cities to supply heat and to do the hundreds of things that are being done and are yet to be done with electricity.
 Here the Georgia Power company has already begun the construction of it's gigantic plant, the first of a series of large plants which 1t proposes to set upon Georgia power furnishing streams through which water will be made to serve a definite and specific purpose. With a Sl0,0O0, 1000 bond issue ap- proved and sold and the money waiting in New York and Canadian banks, the Georgia Power company has gone to work to build here at Tallulah falls in Habersham county, Georgia, the great est power plant save one east of the Rocky mountains
 Excelled only by the power furnished through Niagara Falls. Tallulah wiL furnish anywhere from 6o.000 to 100000 horsepower, depending upon the results attained through the development.
 President c. Eln.er Smith of the Geor- gia Power company is authority for the statement that the company proposes to install six 15,O00 horsepower genera tors of the most modern type, and that it is the purpose to put in equipment which will provide for a 100000 horse power development at the plant.
 The first work to be done and that which Is now in progress under the di- rection of Engineer Huntington, Is the construction of a compressor plant at the foot of l. Eau dor, Golden Water, Fall. This plant will be used solely for the purpose of digging a tunnel $500 feet long, 14 feet high and 12 feet wide, through solid rock from the big dam at the bridge across the wagon road, to the "forebay" near "The Lodge, from which the water, carried through the tunnel from the dam, will fall precipitately 500 feet down to the tre- mendous turbines, that will turn the generators.
 Visitors to Tallulah Falls, and this includes almost half of Georgia and many from neighboring states will re- call the wagon road bridge a short dis tance beyond the Cliff House, under health which the rushing waters moves -apidly toward the series of fails which have long been known as one of na- lures foremost beauties in the eastern United States.
 It is right at this wagon road that the big dam is to be constructed. This dam will be 110 feet high, adding that which to the height from which the wa ter is to fall to the turbines, $50 feet across the top and 75 feet across the bottom. It will back the water up for distance of a mile and a half, form ing a beautiful artificial lake. the idea of which Is proving attractive, it Is stated, to the inhabitants of the sec ton about the falls.
 From this dam the water will be conveyed by the tunnel cut through solid rock, a distance of $500 feet. or about mile and a quarter. This tun- nel will be from 40 to 140 feet below the surface, running along the cliffs below the little shelf upon which the Tallulah Falls railroad Is set.
 At points this tunnel will be far be- low the little n4oks found all along the cliffs from which thousands upon thou sands of visitors have stood and viewed the magnificent surrounding scenery, looking down into the tremendous chasm anywhere from few hundred to ] 900 feet deep or more-mighty depths that have thrilled the sightseer and brought often the thought of what would be the effect of falling from that dizzy height onto the rocks lying far below.