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Turbine room of the Wilson Dam Power Plant, Florence, Alabama, circa 1935.
Credit: ©CORBIS/Bettmann Donated by Corbis-Bettmann
To employ workers during the Great Depression, the federal government funded construction of dams across the nation, including the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River and nine Tennessee Valley Authority dams on the Tennessee River, to provide much-needed hydroelectric power. Westinghouse Electric built the generators for a number these hydroelectric plants, including the Wilson Dam Power Plant on the Tennessee River and the Grand Coulee Dam, for which Westinghouse built the world's most powerful generator.