Jonquière Off The Beaten Path

AUG.15th visited the SHIP SHAW POWER STATION a guided tour. This hydro electric station was built in 1941 to 1943 (when it was put into operation) under pressure of the need for aluminum for the war.When it opened it was the most powerful hydro electric station in the world. Its capacity of 896 megawatts is sufficient to supply a city the size of MONTREAL. When they built it they had to dig a canal 2.4 Km long to bring the water to the 12 groups of turbine-alternators. More than 10,000 men worked on the project. 646,000 cubic meters of cement were poured, enough to build a side walk from Jonquiére to Vancouver, British Columbia. It belongs to Alcan and although it is 60 years old it functions like the new ones and is in good repair. The electronic instruments have been updated but the rest continues to perform. 6 turbines fed by water brought in from the reservoir above by tunnels and huge pipes in 6 tunnels 600 ft. long through the mountain with a drop of210 feet..
We were shown how aluminum is made from Bauxite which is brought in by boat up the St. Lawrence river then the Saguenay from Brazil and Jamaica.

To reach the power station we crossed a bridge made of aluminum, It was the first in the world built this way.