In 1930, the Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation began building a new electrometallurgical plant in nearby Boncar, later known as Alloy, and decided to construct a hydroelectric power station near Gauley Bridge with a tunnel near Hawks Nest to divert the water of the New River and generate the energy needed to rotate the turbines. Work soon began on the three-mile-long Hawks Nest Tunnel, later regarded as a marvel of engineering, and it was for the most part completed in December 1932, only eighteen months after construction began. Workers dug from each end of the tunnel and when they met, the center lines were only off by one inch. Nearly 5,000 men worked on the project, including 3,000 underground; some came from the local area, but many were African Americans who had migrated mostly from the southern states in search of steady work. The tunnel's completion came at a great cost, because workers cutting through the mountain were exposed to high levels of pure silica dust, and with the confined space, poor ventilation, and lack of breathing protection, the results were disastrous. By 1936, more than 400 deaths had been attributed to silicosis contracted while working in the tunnel, though some believed the actual number could have been as many as 2,000, as indicated in a 1936 Congressional report that also revealed another 1,500 men suffering from silicosis contracted while working there. The Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster remains the worst industrial disaster in United States history, and the tunnel and the power station are still in use today.