The Hoover Dam, located on the border between Arizona and Nevada has been referred to as one of “America’s Favorite Engineering Wonders”. In reality, it is more than just a dam. It’s a feat of engineering that ranks among the greatest technological achievements known to man. Here are some fun facts, statistics and history about the Hoover Dam that are bound to blew your mind away –
The Hoover Dam, located in Nevada and Arizona along the border of the United States, is one of the most incredible structures built by man. Because of its size and significance to America, it is known around the world as an architectural wonder.
How much did the hoover dam cost to build
Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over one hundred lives. The dam was named after President Herbert Hoover.
Hoover Dam impounds Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States by volume (when it is full).[5] The dam is located near Boulder City, Nevada, a municipality originally constructed for workers on the construction project, about 30 mi (48 km) southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada.
In 1998, a spillway failure threatened to flood areas of Arizona and Southern California when water from heavy rains flowed into Lake Mead above maximum capacity levels set by Hoover Dam. A subsequent investigation revealed that many features of the dam had been designed for a smaller pool level than that which now existed and had been retrofitted with stop-log type devices to limit any overflow.[6] In response to these findings, changes were made in minimum pool levels that would require higher releases from Lake
The Hoover Dam was built during the Great Depression, between 1931 and 1936. It was the largest public works project in American history at that time, employing more than 20,000 people.
A total of 1,240 people died during construction, most of them due to falling off the extremely high dam walls into the Colorado River below. One worker was killed every two days on average during this period.
The Hoover Dam is 726 ft (221 m) high, 660 ft (201 m) long at its crest and 660 ft (201 m) thick at its base. The Colorado River flows through the dam’s center from west to east before it spills into Lake Mead on the Nevada-Arizona border.
It cost $17 million ($229 million in today’s dollars) to build the Hoover Dam, which was completed in 1935 after five years of construction.
Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over one hundred lives. The dam was named after President Herbert Hoover.
Hoover Dam impounds Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States by volume (when it is full). The dam is located near Boulder City, Nevada, a municipality originally constructed for workers on the construction project, about 30 mi southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. The dam’s generators provide power for public and private utilities in Nevada, Arizona, and California.[6] Hoover Dam is a major tourist attraction; nearly a million people tour the dam each year. The heavily travelled U.S. Route 93 (US 93) ran along the dam’s crest until October 2010,[7] when the Hoover Dam Bypass opened.[8]
The Hoover Dam was built between 1931 and 1936 by the Bureau of Reclamation, an agency within the United States Department of the Interior. The dam has been a National Historic Landmark since 1985 and was designated a National Civil Engineering Landmark in 1987.
In June 1928, Congress authorized the Boulder Canyon Project for flood control, water supply, and power generation. The project included construction of two dams on the Colorado River: one in Black Canyon to impound Lake Mead and another at Boulder Canyon, now known as Hoover Dam.
Two years later, work began on the dam site with excavation of the canyon walls to create a cofferdam to divert the Colorado River around the dam site. This diversionary channel allowed construction of cofferdams upstream from the dam site so that concrete could be poured for its foundation and abutments. On September 6, 1930 President Herbert Hoover ceremonially turned over the first bucket of concrete for building what would become known as Hoover Dam.
Completed in 1936 at a cost of $49 million dollars (around $676 million today), Hoover Dam is 726 feet high (its highest point is just below ground level) and 1,244 feet long at its crest. At full capacity it can store 3
Hoover Dam was built in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River in what is now Nevada, between 1931 and 1936. The dam was constructed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the largest federal water resource development agency in the United States.
The Hoover Dam had a number of purposes: to provide water for irrigation and other uses in arid regions of the West; to control floods on the Colorado River; and to provide hydroelectric power as well as act as a structure to regulate water levels on the river.
The Hoover Dam has also been used for flood control and power generation. It has been used for this purpose since its completion in 1936, but its design enabled it to withstand much larger flood flows than were ever anticipated at the time of its construction.
Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over one hundred lives. The dam was named after President Herbert Hoover.
The dam was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1985. In 2007, it was ranked number seven on the American Society of Civil Engineers’s list of America’s Favorite Architecture.[2]
Why was Hoover Dam built?
Hoover Dam is located on the border between Arizona and Nevada; it serves as a source of water for both states’ residents while also regulating water flow into nearby lakes Mead and Mohave.[3] The dam also generates electricity; since its completion in 1935, it has generated more than 1 trillion kilowatt hours.[4]
Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over one hundred lives. The dam was named after President Herbert Hoover.
The dam was widely praised for its innovative design, and it was recognized as one of America’s greatest engineering achievements; it has been called “an engineering marvel”. However, its construction created Lake Mead, which has become a major tourist attraction for Las Vegas, Nevada.
The first official sighting of Hoover Dam by a European American was in 1853 when William (Bill) Hickman discovered it while being pursued by Native Americans while en route to California with his wife Rachael and two children.[1][2] He found that there were many others living there already.[3][4] In 1883, John Wesley Powell led an expedition down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon
Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona.
It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over one hundred lives. The dam was named after President Herbert Hoover.
A large monument dedicated to those who died constructing the dam stands at its base.
The dam is located near Boulder City, Nevada, about 35 mi southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. It was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1985.[2] In 2007, it was ranked number 8 among American engineering achievements that stand the test of time by the American Society of Civil Engineers.[3]
Hoover Dam, located on the Colorado River in Nevada, Arizona and California, is one of the great engineering wonders of the world. It is an icon of America’s history and a symbol of our nation’s progress. The Hoover Dam was built as part of President Herbert Hoover’s New Deal Program during the Great Depression.
The dam was constructed between 1931 and 1936 by the Bureau of Reclamation for the U.S. Department of the Interior. When it was completed in 1936, it was considered to be an “engineering wonder” because it contained 2,000 miles of pipe and had 18 million pounds of wire – enough to circle the earth three times!
Hoover dam facts:
The dam is 726 feet tall, 1,244 feet thick at its base and 660 feet thick at its crest;
It contains 6 million cubic yards (4,560,000 m³) concrete;
The top 30 feet (9 m) were built with double walls;
The bottom 468 feet (142 m) were built with concrete grout blocks;
Hoover Dam was built during the Great Depression, and it took five years to complete. The dam’s construction required 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete and 5.5 million pounds of steel rebar.
Hoover Dam is named after President Herbert Hoover, who oversaw the dam’s construction.
The dam cost $49 million to build — or about $619 million in today’s dollars. That works out to roughly $1 million per foot of dam height.
The 726-foot high dam is 660 feet thick at its base, which is wider than the island of Manhattan.
It took 20,000 people to build the Hoover Dam by hand and with the aid of some early heavy equipment such as cranes, bulldozers and steam shovels.
The dam has 2,000 miles of tunnels inside it that hold pipes for water distribution throughout Nevada, Arizona and California — enough piping to stretch from New York City to Los Angeles twice over!