used because of the American Civil War. After completing the canal project, it was idle until 1875 when the canal's first customer, Charles B. Gaskill's "Cataract City Milling Company", was using the water of the canal to power the milling company's flour grist mill. Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company In 1877, as the company had only attracted one client, it declared bankruptcy and was auctioned off. The company interests were bought for $71,000 () by Jacob F. Schoellkopf, who in 1878 formed the "Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company" to use the canal. After the transfer of the property, Schoellkopf finished the excavating, but the canal remained idle for a few years. The work on the power plant began and the canal was enlarged in 1892. By 1896, power plant number two had been completed and was supplying power to different factories about Niagara Falls. Many additions and extensions were made to the original plant, and company began to work on a new plant, called plant number three, that when completed, was separate from the original plant around six or eight hundred feet to the north. The workings of the Hydraulic company were entirely below the first Upper Steel Arch Bridge. Plant number two, which was one 100 ft. by 176 ft. in dimensions, generated an average of 34,000 continuous horsepower. The entire fall of the water in the canal from the forebay to the tailrace is 210 ft. The power canal, which taps the river at a point above Port Day, and runs throughout the city to a point below the Upper Steel Arch Bridge, furnished a steady supply of water year round. Just below Port Day is the beginning of the rapids, with a fall of more than 50 ft. in three-quarters of a mile. By cutting across a bend in the river the canal comes out at the cliff below the bridge the entire distance being about 4,400 ft. Built before the era of industrial production of alternating current, the electrical plant generated direct-current electricity, and only provided it within a range of two miles from the plant. In 1898 the company built the Niagara Junction Railway to encourage industrial expansion in the area. Hydraulic Power Company of Niagara Falls In 1907, the New York Public Service Commission law was passed which regulated the rights of non-electrical corporations from engaging in the development of