Adams Power Station, New York

Nicola Tesla is among the visionaries who conceived of harnessing the falls for electrical production, and the Adams Power Station was the first large-scale electrical generating station in the world to use alternating current, which Tesla had developed and proven as a superior technology to direct current. This plant opened in 1895, and was expanded over the years, until finally being closed in 1961 when it was replaced by much larger plants. The transformer building, designed by McKim, Mead and White, is the only remaining structure from the old plant, and there is talk of turning it into a museum.