Elliðaárdalur
Riverside urban valley with a century-old hydro plant and a wild salmon run through the capital.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Elliðaárdalur in Reykjavik follows the low hum of Iceland's oldest hydroelectric plant, switched on here on June 27, 1921, and the argument that got it built: a gymnastics teacher, Frimann B. Arngrimsson, insisted the little Ellidaa river could power more than fish, and engineers Gudmundur Hliddal and Jon Thorlaksson carried the idea forward. You'll hear how Norwegian engineers solved the puzzle of damming a river that freezes solid, and what still turns beneath the hand-dug tunnel through the rock. Listen for salmon and sea trout still working their way upstream past the plant that once reshaped this whole valley.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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