 Both settlements served primarily as fishing and trading posts.The first telegraph cable connecting Iceland to Europe made landfall in Seyðisfjörður in 1906, making it a hub for international telecommunications well past the middle of last century.In 1913, a dam was made in the main river, harnessing power for the country's first high-voltage AC power plant together with a distribution network for street lighting and home use, also the first of its kind in Iceland.