Hoover Dam: the Mojave's awesome wall of water
Millions of gallons of cascading water provide not just a wonderous sight for tourists but billions of kilowatts of electricity and millions of gallons of drinking water — enough to power and refresh the American Southwest.
Without the Hoover Dam, an engineering marvel located just 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas, on the Nevada-Arizona border, the Southwest as we know it couldn't exist. It's the most popular reclamation project as a tourist attraction in the United States — and it's easy to see why.
Stretched like a gargantuan wall of water across the 800-foot-deep Black Canyon of the Colorado River, Hoover Dam supplies water for more than 25 million. Its 17 massive generators produce 4 billion kilowatt hours per year — enough to supply power for 1.3 million people, or a half-million homes.
The massive structure was built to control devastating floods on the lower Colorado River and to provide water for drinking and irrigation. The Hoover Dam's an arch-gravity dam 660 feet wide at its base with two spillways 50 feet in diameter, each able to handle the equivalent of a Niagara Falls. The dam’s volume surpasses the largest pyramid in Egypt.
Hoover Dam straddles the Nevada-Arizona border; tall clocks on either side of the dividing line on the road tell you the current time in both states. (Arizona doesn’t change to Daylight Savings Time.) Originally named for President Herbert Hoover, the dam was renamed Boulder Dam from 1933 until 1947, when it was officially renamed the Hoover Dam once more.
Las Vegas' phenomenal growth has been credited to the dam and to the thousands of people who moved here to construct it. At the peak of construction 5,218 workers were employed.
Officially, 96 died directly from working on the project; however, the construction company never counted the many who died from carbon monoxide poisoning, heart attacks, heat stroke and other ailments. In total, it took between 15,000 and 16,000 people over five years to build the dam. Completed in February 1935 — two years ahead of schedule —Hoover Dam was cited in 1955 by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of America’s seven modern civil-engineering wonders.
The Hoover Dam doesn't have an exact address. If you're using a GPS navigator to get there, first try typing in "Hoover Dam" as the landmark name; if that doesn't work, try typing in these coordinates: N 36.016222, W -114.73724.
The Bureau of Reclamation gives two guided tours of Hoover Dam, offering an explanation of the dam's history, purpose and inner workings. The Power Plant Tour, suitable for all ages, offers discounts for seniors and children (military in uniform and children under 4 are free). The Dam Tour (only for those 8 or older) takes visitors inside the dam.
- by Bobbie Katz, Las Vegas Reporter for HelloMetro
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