Cushman Hydro Project
3628 South 35th Street , Tacoma, Washington, United States

Cushman No. 1 Dam was one of the first major dams in the Pacific Northwest. It was symbolically activated in 1926 when President Calvin Coolidge pressed a button in the White House during a ceremony to energize the project.  Located on the North Fork of the Skokomish River near Hood Canal, the dam is 275 feet high and 1,111 feet long and generates enough electricity for about 10,000 homes. The dam created Lake Cushman.  Just downstream is Cushman No. 2 Dam, which was completed in 1930, and formed the 150-acre Kokanee Lake. The dam is 235 feet high above bedrock and 575 feet long. Its powerhouse sits several miles below the dam, overlooking Hood Canal along U.S. Highway 101. The dam generates enough energy to power more than 18,000 homes. We added the North Fork Powerhouse in 2013, which generates enough energy to power approximately 1,700 homes.  Our renewable, carbon-free hydroelectric energy moves from the Cushman Hydro Project to Tacoma on a 40-mile-long transmission line. Stretching the line across the Tacoma Narrows in 1926 was a notable engineering achievement at the time. It spans more than a mile and a quarter between towers in Tacoma and Gig Harbor. The original all-steel conductors were replaced with steel reinforced aluminum conductors in 2007.