You would be hard-pressed to find someone in North America who has not heard of the Hoover Dam. It is one of the most impressive structures in the world. Spanning the mighty Colorado River, it is a massive engineering marvel made possible by the hard work of twenty-one thousand Americans. The dam provides water and electricity to millions of people in the American Southwest, including the states of Arizona, Nevada and California. It is also a major tourist attraction.
Construction on the Hoover Dam employed 21,000 workers. Construction started in 1931 and wrapped up in 1936, two years ahead of schedule. Even though construction finished early, it wasn’t without controversy. Labour at the dam was hard and treacherous. There was extreme heat, bad air quality, and dangerous working conditions. A total of 112 deaths were associated with the construction of the dam. Sixteen of those occurred before construction even started, including a drowning during a flash flood while surveying the area. The most common cause of death was falling objects, particularly loose rocks. Other causes of death included one person who fell from the intake towers and multiple suicides.
42 construction workers were recorded as having died from pneumonia. These deaths were not included in the totals above. According to some dam employees, these pneumonia deaths were a cover-up for carbon monoxide poisoning that was caused by the gasoline vehicles used in the diversion tunnels.
The diversion tunnels are four large tunnels that were used to redirect the Colorado River around the area where the dam was to be constructed. Two were built on the Nevada side of the Colorado River, and two were built on the Arizona side. The diameter of these tunnels is about 55 feet and was created by blasting through the rock with dynamite. The tunnels were then lined with concrete to prevent erosion.
A mind-boggling amount of concrete was used to build the dam. The dam contains enough concrete to build a highway across America from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.
Inside the dam, four inspection galleries allow visitors to see the dam’s inner workings and feel the vibrations of the water and the generators.
There are a total of 17 generators inside the dam. The hall containing the generators is “U” shaped and located at the dam’s base. The generators are 50 feet tall, and only the top few feet are visible inside the hall.
The generators help create over 4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. That electricity reaches over 1.3 million people, improving their lives, and providing them with a stable source of power.
An estimated seven million people visit the Hoover Dam each year. They get to see in person how human ingenuity and sacrifice were used to empower America. The Hoover Dam is a testament to what the human spirit can accomplish and displays how technology can be used to improve the quality of life for generations.
