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Buy the "Great Projects" videos and companion book at ShopPBS. |
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Consolidating Power Insull assumed the presidency of faraway Chicago Edison in 1892. He faced a battlefield of competing electrical companies and systems. Realizing that cost savings would come with scale, Insull methodically began acquiring his competitors. By 1898 he had bought up every other system in Chicago's downtown Loop. Yet even this large generating capacity was insufficient for the enormous demand for current that arose when Insull began supplying electricity for Chicago's electric streetcars and elevated railways. |
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  How engineers contained and controlled the Colorado and Mississippi rivers. Thomas Edison lights up New York City; Sam Insull brings power to Chicago; and TVA electrifies rural America Constructing the George Washington Bridge Putting a major highway under Boston  |
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