The water was directed by the dam into an 49 inches (1,200 mm) diameter pipeline that was 15,407 feet (4,696 m) long and connected to a steel penstock.

[2]: 41–43 Contractors built a 25-mile rail line to Gorge Creek, allowing Seattle City Light to control access to the area.

The schedule was further delayed by workers leaving to hunt for gold, labor troubles, a forest fire, and a shortage of electricity.

Although Ross had estimated that the Skagit River operation would provide electricity to Seattle by 1921, those various delays pushed the date to 1924.

[2] From 1928 until the start of World War II, Ross began a program in which City Light offered guided tours of the Skagit Project.

The next day, visitors boarded another train to Diablo, where they toured the powerhouse and rode an incline lift to the top of the dam.

[7] In 1931, a charter amendment that would give Ross authority over engineering projects for City Light was on the ballot, which was opposed by political opponents and which local newspapers predicted would lose decidedly.

On March 9, the day before the election, Seattle mayor Frank Edwards abruptly fired Ross for "inefficiency, disloyalty, and willful neglect of duty" and for "participation in politics".

Although the mayor had expected the firing to become public the following day, The Seattle Star published a special late evening edition carrying a story by Ross and urging voters to pass the charter amendment.

On July 13, 1931, voters elected a new mayor, Robert Harlin, who promptly appointed Ross back to his position.

In a 1937 interview, Ross predicted "All the energy in the Columbia River Basin may not be needed right now, but the time is going to come when the country will use it—every single kilowatt of it.

"[7] In 1931, Ross accepted Roosevelt's invitation to be a consulting engineer on New York's Saint Lawrence River project, the Moses-Saunders Power Dam.

[2]: 104  He advised the President that underground cables linking electrical supply would be "safer from aerial attack in time of war".

[11] In his first BPA report, Ross revealed a master plan that would link Bonneville and the Grand Coulee dams with backbone lines connecting south to California, east to Montana, and southeast to Idaho.

[12] Their graves are marked with a granite tomb with a bronze plaque embossed with a statement written by Roosevelt:[2]: 72-73 J. D. Ross, one of the greatest Americans of our generation, was an outstanding mathematician and an equally great engineer.