Since 1896 AC electricity has flowed from Niagara Falls to North Tonawanda to Buffalo through the genius of Nikola Tesla. In appreciation of his numerous contributions to our civilization, the Nikola Tesla Legacy Corridor has been established. More about Tesla in Buffalo-Niagara: He imagined his AC turbines as a young man in Europe, then came to the U.S. When Edison refused to believe in AC power'
s possibility, Tesla opened his own lab, and eventually partnered with George Westinghouse. Westinghouse won the contract to light the 1893 World Colombian Exposition at Chicago. Capturing the attention of the businessmen bankrolling the event, Westinghouse went on to win the contract to build an AC power station at Niagara Falls. Nikola Tesla was the key and finally had the chance to construct his long-imagined turbines and transformers that transmitted AC power long-distance for the first time in the world. The copper lines sent power 26 miles from the Falls, through North Tonawanda to Buffalo, powering the electric streetcar system on November 15, 1896. Thus Tesla realized his lifelong dream, coinciding with the pinnacle of Victorian imagination in Buffalo; the first “Electric City”: The Pan-American Exposition. The 1901 event was inspired in part by these events, with its “City of Light” theme. Tesla also invented key aspects of radio, remote control, radar, wireless communication and x-ray imaging, but having signed over the rights to his AC power related patents with Westinghouse, he died penniless at the New Yorker Hotel in 1943 and was forgotten by many.
