In July 1895, this was one of the few places in California or the United States where industrial-scale electricity was being generated. Where gold miners had only recently washed pans of gravel for placer gold, water-powered turbines now spun groundbreaking three-phase generators. Designed with the help of the General Electric Company, this hydroelectric power plant was one of the first to successfully demonstrate the economic and practical feasibility of generating and transmitting alternating current electricity over long distances. Earlier direct current electric power plants could transmit electricity only short distances, usually less than five miles. Although this hydroelectric power plant was soon surpassed in size and power output by new construction throughout California, later power plants built on the success achieved here. The turbines and generators in this building lit and powered Sacramento for over fifty years.