Hoover Dam

This article concerns the dam on the Colorado River. For the one in Ohio, see Hoover Dam.

The Hoover Dam is a concrete gravity-arch dam in the Black Canyon, on the Colorado River border, between Arizona and Nevada. The dam, located 48 kilometres (30 miles) southeast of Las Vegas, is named after President Herbert Hoover. The Hoover Dam was built by Six Companies, Inc, under Frank Crowe. Construction began in 1931 and was completed in 1936, two years, one month and twenty eight days, ahead of schedule. Lake Mead is the name given to the reservoir created behind the dam.

Table of contents

1 History
2 Statistics
3 The naming controversy
4 External links

History

Built during the Great Depression, over 100 workers died during the construction of the four diversion tunnels and dam, which were not ventilated. Crews of "icebox men" would run into the tunnels and wrap heat-afflicted workers in ice to try and cool them down, but this would often not be enough. Many of the workers' wives and children also died from the extreme heat and lack of sanitation they had to endure in the squalid camps like Ragtown which quickly grew around the dam site. Six Companies, Inc. was contracted to build a new town for construction workers, to be called Boulder City, but Frank Crowe preferred to concentrate efforts on the tunnels and dam. Crowe was fearful of winter floods and the financial penalties he would suffer if the project fell behind schedule. However, discontent with Ragtown and the dangerous working conditions led to a strike on August 8 1931. Six Companies responded by sending in strike-breakers with guns and clubs, and the strike was soon quashed. But the discontent prompted the authorities to speed up the construction of Boulder City, and by the spring of 1932 Ragtown had been deserted. [1].

The dam was designed to control floods; to store water for irrigation, municipal, and industrial use; and to generate hydroelectric power. Generators at the Dam's Hoover Powerplant began to transmit electricity from the Colorado River a distance of 266 miles (364 km) to Los Angeles, California on October 9, 1936. Additional generating units were added through 1961. The seventeen main turbines at this powerhouse generate 2,074 megawatts of hydroelectric power. The dam and powerplant are operated by the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation.

In addition its economic and engineering renown, Hoover Dam is accounted a masterpiece of Art Deco design.

Statistics

Construction period: April 20, 1931 - March 1, 1936
Construction cost: $165 million
Dam Height: 726.4 ft (221.4 m), highest in the Western Hemisphere.
Dam Thickness: 660 ft (200 m) at its base; 45 ft (15 m) thick at its crest.
Concrete: 4.36 million yards³ (3.64 million; m³)
Traffic across the dam: 13,000 to 16,000 people each day, according to the Federal Highway Administration
Lake Mead surface area: 247 square miles (637; km²), backing up 110 miles (177 km) behind the dam.
Lake Mead water volume: approximately 46,000,000,000 yd³ (35.2 km³), or 28.5 million acre-feet; nearly 2 years of average Colorado River flow; largest man-made reservoir in the USA.
Lake Mead shoreline: 550 miles (885 km)
With 8 to 10 million visitors each year, the Lake Mead National Recreation Area is the 5th busiest national park in the USA, according to the National Park Service.

The naming controversy

The dam, originally planned for a location in Boulder Canyon, was relocated to Black Canyon for better impoundment, but was still known as the Boulder Dam project. Work on the project started on July 7, 1930. At the official beginning of the project on September 17, 1930, President Hoover's Secretary of the Interior Ray L. Wilbur, announced the name as Hoover Dam. Hoover was already campaigning for re-election in the face of the Depression and sought credit for creating jobs.

Hoover did not win, and on May 8, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, renamed the dam Boulder Dam. The intent was to deny Hoover credit, though the dam had been begun in his administration. Finally, on April 30, 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed legislation restoring the name Hoover Dam.