HOOVER DAM

HOOVER DAM
Hoover Dam, also sometimes known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between Arizona and Nevada. When completed in 1935, it was both the world's largest electric-power generating station and the world's largest concrete structure. It was surpassed in both these respects by the Grand Coulee Dam in 1945. It is currently the world's 35th-largest hydroelectric generating station.
An army of over 5200 labourers was assembled and work proceeded 24 hours a day. The dam was completed in 1936 two years ahead of schedule and $15 million under the budget. It is, thus, a Wonder of the Modern Fiscal World. The dam is a massive curved wall, 660 feet thick at the bottom, tapering to 45 feet at the top. It towers 726 feet above bedrock. This dam, located 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas, is named after Herbert Hoover, who played an instrumental role in its construction, first as the Secretary of Commerce and then later as the U S President. Construction began in 1931 and was completed in 1935, more than two years ahead of schedule. Lake Mead is the reservoir created behind the dam, named after Elwood Mead, who oversaw the construction of the dam..
We joined the “The Discover Tour” which began with a short video presentation. Then you ride down more than 50 stories to Black Canyon tunnel to view the dam’s massive power generators, each one of which alone gives power to a city of 100,000 people. From the top of the dam you can view Lake Mead which extends 110 miles towards Grand Canyon. Lake Mead has a capacity of 9 trillion gallons, equal to two years of the normal flow of the Colorado River. The dam provides 4 billion kilowatt hours a year of electricity for Southern California, Nevada and Arizona.

Hoover Dam from the air
In January 1922, Hoover met with the state governors of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming to work out an equitable arrangement for apportioning the waters of the Colorado River for their states' use. The resulting Colorado River Compact, signed in 1922, split the river basin into upper and lower halves with the states within each region deciding how the water would be divided. This agreement, known as the Hoover Compromise, paved the way for the Boulder Dam Project. Can’t we think of some such agreement for the Cauvery River?
Early plans called for the dam to be built in Boulder Canyon, so the project was known as the Boulder Canyon Project. The dam site was eventually moved downstream eight miles to Black Canyon, but the project name remained the same. The contract to make the Boulder Dam was awarded to “Six Companies”. The chief executive, Frank Crowe, had previously invented many of the techniques used to build the dam.
During the concrete-pouring and curing portion of construction, it was necessary to circulate refrigerated water through tubes in the concrete. This was to remove the heat generated by the chemical reactions that solidify the concrete, since the setting and curing of the concrete was calculated to take about 125 years if cooling was not done. “Six Companies” did much of this work, but it discovered that such a large refrigeration project was beyond its expertise. Hence, the Union Carbide Corporation was contracted to assist with the refrigeration needs.
Work on the foundation excavations was completed in June 1933. During excavations for the foundation, approximately 1,500,000 yd³ of material was removed. Since the dam would be a gravity-arch type, the side-walls of the canyon would also bear the force of the impounded lake. Therefore the side-walls were excavated too, to reach virgin (un-weathered) rock which had not experienced the weathering of centuries of water seepage, wintertime freeze cracking, and the heating/cooling cycles of the Arizona/Nevada desert.
There were 112 deaths associated with the construction of the dam. There are different accounts as to how many people died while working on the dam and who was the first and last to die. A popular story holds that the first person to die in the construction of Hoover Dam was J. G. Tierney, a surveyor who drowned while looking for an ideal spot for the dam. Coincidentally, his son, Patrick W. Tierney, was the last man to die working on the dam, 13 years to the day later. 96 of the deaths occurred during construction at the site.
We saw the 145 feet tall flag pole and the monument of dedication “Winged Figures of the Republic” in memory of those who died during construction. There is also a dedication to their favourite puppy.



Hoover Dam - June 2005
There is enough concrete in the dam to pave a two-lane highway from San Francisco to New York. The dam crosses the border between two time zones, the Pacific Time Zone and the Mountain Time Zone.
In his memoirs, Hoover wrote of stopping to inspect progress on the dam, by night, on November 12, 1932, on his way back to Washington from Palo Alto after his defeat to Franklin Roosevelt. He commented, "It does give me extraordinary pleasure to see the great dream I have so long held taking form in actual reality of stone and cement. It is now ten years since I became chairman of the Colorado River Commission.... This dam is the greatest engineering work of its character ever attempted by the hand of man." He went on to list its purposes, concluding, "I hope to be present at its final completion as a bystander. Even so I shall feel a special personal satisfaction."
Hoover wrote a footnote in his memoirs "Responding to a suggestion from Hiram Johnson, and with his characteristic attitude, Secretary Ickes changed the name of the dam. The hint in the above address that I should like to be present did not secure me an invitation to the dedication ceremonies conducted by President Roosevelt. I have never regarded the name as important. The important thing is a gigantic engineering accomplishment that will bring happiness to millions of people. In 1947, the Congress, by practically unanimous action, restored the name Hoover Dam".
Thus, Hoover was not present when the dam was declared open by President Roosevelt!. Another case of “Hamlet” without the “Prince of Denmark ”!
P P R
11-11-2008
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