Visiting the Hoover Dam, South of Las Vegas

We drove through
Boulder City.

The Hoover Dam

Visitor Center

Controlling the flow of water in the western United States called for inter-state cooperation and Federal Government support.  Droughts and flooding caused substantial damage.  Levees had been constructed and had been found to be ineffective.

In 1928, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Boulder Canyon Dam Project Act to fund a dam across the lower Colorado River.  

Eric at Hoover Dam

Beyond is the original 

Visitor Center & The Spillway

House Event Center. 

The Boulder Dam was renamed for President Herbert Hoover in 1947.  While Secretary of the Interior, Herbert Hoover worked hard to advance the dam project.

Construction of Boulder

 Dam started in 1931.

A total of 21,000 men worked on all phases of the project, including diverting the Colorado River so that Black Canyon could be dredged and dam construction could begin.  

Concrete for the dam was poured in rows and columns.  Pipes allowed cold water to through the concrete to hasten the concrete's cooling process.  Then the pipes were filled with concrete to form a solid structure. The total amount of concrete used to build the dam: 600,000 tons.  Construction went on three shifts a day, seven days a week for four years. The dam was completed more than two years ahead of schedule.  Lake Mead, our country's largest man made reservoir was created by the dam.

Three of the four intake

towers in Lake Mead

control the supply of water

for the power plant turbines.

Water from Lake Mead goes through a series of smaller and smaller pipes until the water turns turbines, generating electricity.  

I like the colors along the

shore of Lake Mead.

The Colorado River continues

south.

Water from electricity generation

also flows south.

Architect Gordon B. Kaufmann reworked the elements of the dam into sweeping, modern lines.  He used Art Deco elements to unite this massive project.  Denver artist, Allen True, worked with Kaufmann on interior elements and motifs.

Sculptor Oskar J.W. Hansen created

Winged Figures of the Republic

to remind all that eternal vigilance

is the price of liberty.

Art Deco friezes decorate
the towers.








Construction of the dam was completed in 1935, more than two years ahead of schedule.  Of the 21,000 men who worked on the Hoover Dam, 96 died during its construction.

It has been difficult for all seven states who share the Colorado Basin, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, California and Wyoming to agree on shared water rights.  These matters have been settled in the courts.