Looking N from roof of Farm Credit Banks building on north side of Main St. between 2nd and 3rd Sts..
<p>In left foreground, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisville_Gas_%26_Electric" class="extiw" title="w:Louisville Gas &amp; Electric">LG&amp;E</a> Waterside Station (on site bounded by 2nd St., 3rd St., River Road and Washington St.; <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://twitter.com/lgeku/status/246224054107910144/photo/1">built ca. 1910</a>; originally a coal-fired <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_station" class="extiw" title="w:Power station">generating station</a>, later having only gas-fired <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaking_power_plant" class="extiw" title="w:Peaking power plant">peak-load</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_generator" class="extiw" title="w:Electric generator">generators</a>; demolished 2008).
Large circular metal disks on roof indicate places where coal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokestack" class="extiw" title="w:Smokestack">smokestacks</a> (six, though only five disks are visible) once stood.
At left, short rusty stack capped with grating is connected to one of the gas-fired peak-load generators.
Brick building north of main building, at left, is <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.screeningsystems.com/products/New-Traveling-Water-Screens">water screen</a> building which contained screens used to remove debris from river water drawn in to supply the boilers. For many years, there was a sign atop this building which read, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://digital.library.louisville.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/royal/id/16537/rec/10">"The Gateway to the South. Louisville Gas &amp; Electric Co."</a>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Rogers_Clark_Memorial_Bridge" class="extiw" title="w:George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge">Clark Bridge</a> at right, with I-64 passing beneath it.
</p><p>"In 1964 LG&amp;E became the first company in the electric utility industry to use new jet engines to drive existing generators. The company installed four jet engines at Waterside, the oldest existing station in Louisville, to replace obsolete coal-fired steam boilers and turbines to run units seven and eight, two standby generators." (from <i>The Encyclopedia of Louisville</i>, p. 515)
</p><p>If you walked up the approach to the Clark Bridge on a hot summer afternoon, you could see the exhaust from these peak-load generators rising from the roof, although the stacks themselves were too short to be visible. The exhaust was transparent but hot enough to distort the image of distant objects. See a <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://brokensidewalk.com/2008/08/26/arena-mayhem-giant-engine-found-amid-lge-rubble/">photo of one of the jet engines</a> after it was removed during the 2008 demolition.
</p><p>As mentioned, this plant had as many as six large smokestacks.
Around 1922, it had <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://brokensidewalk.com/2010/01/05/louisvilles-incredible-elevated-rapid-transit-trains/">three stacks</a>.
By 1926, it had <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://digital.library.louisville.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/cs/id/1395/rec/9">five stacks</a>.
By 1930, it had <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://digital.library.louisville.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/cs/id/1559/rec/4">six stacks</a>.
Here's <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://digital.library.louisville.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/cs/id/1553/rec/30">another 1930 view with six stacks</a>.
</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_River" class="extiw" title="w:Ohio River">Ohio River</a> 604
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisville,_Kentucky" class="extiw" title="w:Louisville, Kentucky">Louisville, Kentucky</a>.
Dec. 1987.
File # 87l085.
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35 mm Kodachrome.
Plustek OpticFilm 7600i and Silverfast 8.
Picture Window 6.
</p>
JPEG quality 95.
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/70020260@N04">William Alden</a> from Louisville, Kentucky, USA
CC BY-SA 2.0
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bill_alden/8729479750/">87l085: Looking N from roof of Farm Credit Banks building</a>