The Hoover Dam in Boulder City, NV, should be on everyone's "must see" list. It was spectacular. It would be difficult to imagine an achievement of its magnitude being accomplished today. Being from the South, I was always familiar with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers building dams and managing waterways, in the West, it is the Bureau of Reclamation. They made the point that the dam was funded entirely by the sale of electricity and tours. The original loan from the federal government was repaid long ago.
I had to use my Panorama setting to capture the expanse of this dam.
(And it still missed a lot.)
The bill for the fantastic bridge downstream from the dam, on the other hand, very likely cost the American taxpayer dearly with no prospect for ever earning a nickel. I was very happy, however, to use the bridge as we breezed into Vegas instead of having to drive the motorhome across the dam. That probably saved us several hours of driving time.
Time to queue up for the tour!
We were told that you will not find L.E.A.Ks. But, there is quite a bit of seepage.
This room housed 8 of the 17 major generators and one of its 17 minor generators.
I appreciated the attention to detail.
Some passageways were nicely finished...
...and some were a little ruff.
This louvered vent was on the face of the dam.
This was the view looking straight out the louvered vent...
...and this is looking straight down the face of the dam from the vent (only my hand holding the camera stuck out.)
There were 1,000 steps in the emergency escape stairs below. Our guide told us there were no standards when they were built, so each step was slightly different from the one before it. We were happy the elevator was in good working order.
Looking back at the welcome center from the top and center of the dam.
This is the Arizona side of the dam.
With the right amount of water running down this chute, this would be quite the water slide! It must have been an awesome sight on the two occasions when there was actually water running through the overflow spillways.
Many people apparently look over this rail to admire the majesty of the construction (overflow spillway), forgetting the power of the wind!
This represents about a third of the hats collected below.
Back on the Nevada side.
The diorama graphically showed the projects the Bureau of Reclamation has implemented on the Colorado River and its tributaries - the scope of their influence is extensive.
I never understood the connection between the winged sculptures and the dam. Even more obscure, but more interesting to me, were the stars inlaid in the walkway around the statues. They were placed to represent the position of the stars in the sky on the day the dam was dedicated. I suspect if we have lost all records of the dam being built, we will probably have lost the capacity for projecting a date in time based on the star's positions as well. I think it must have been more of a symbolic gesture rather than a serious scientific effort to commemorate the dedication.
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