Falling water built Cohoes, where mills and factories on power canals used waterpower to manufacture textiles and metal goods. Today, the energy of Cohoes Falls is carried through wires to homes and businesses throughout eastern New York. The School Street powerhouse contains five turbine-generator units with a combined capacity of 38,800 kilowatts and an average annual generation of 190,000 megawatt-hours, enough to power 26,000 homes. The 1915 hydroelectric project uses the dam, upper gatehouse, and power canal of the Cohoes Company's 1800s system, while lower canals were abandoned and filled after the hydro plant came online. A 4,500-foot-long power canal carries water from the pond in the Mohawk River backed up by the Cohoes Company Dam to the Lower Gatehouse, where it is directed into five penstocks, large steel pipes that run down the face of the gorge to the powerhouse. Water from each penstock spins a turbine and generator before rejoining the river below the falls.