Hoover Dam (USA) – description, history, location. Exact address, phone number, website. Reviews of tourists, photos and videos.
Not far from the famous American city of Las Vegas is an interesting attraction – one of the largest dams in the world – the Hoover Dam. To be more precise, it is located on the border of the states of Nevada and Arizona in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River. This unique object owes its name to Herbert Hoover, the 31st President of America. Largely thanks to this man, the Hoover Dam was built. See citypopulationreview for state facts, symbols and history of Nevada.
The image of the Hoover Dam has been used in many works of art. So, for example, the dam is mentioned in the book by Ilf and Petrov “One-story America”, in the films “Transformers” and “Universal Soldier” and the cartoon “Beavis and Butt-Head Do America”.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Americans decided to curb the rebellious Colorado River, as it often caused great inconvenience to the locals. When snow melted in the mountains, the river flooded the surrounding lands downstream. The construction of the reservoir was supposed to solve this problem. In addition, the dam could continuously supply water to Los Angeles and other areas of California. However, the designers and everyone involved in the creation of the future Hoover Dam faced one problem. It was necessary to settle the issue of the distribution of water between the states in order to avoid litigation with all dissatisfied consumers. The fact is that at that time in American courts there were a huge number of lawsuits related precisely to the use of water resources. So that after the completion of the construction of the dam everyone was satisfied, a special commission was created. Its members signed an agreement that clearly indicated how the life-giving water would be spent.
The construction of the Hoover Dam began in 1931. Herbert Hoover at that time had already become the president of the country and allocated budget money for this grandiose construction. The dam was built at a difficult time for the Americans – the country was in the Great Depression. Thousands of people, desperate to find at least some work, gathered at the construction site of the dam. The working conditions of these hard workers were extremely difficult. Many builders have died or become disabled due to carbon monoxide poisoning. A total of 96 people died here. The first to die was the topographer J. Tierney, who drowned in the river. The last person to die at the construction site of the Hoover Dam was his son Patrick. He crashed, falling from one of the spillway towers.
Especially for the workers next to the future dam, it was decided to break the small city of Boulder City. However, they did not manage to build housing on time, and at first people had to live in a camp made in haste. Conditions there were so difficult that in the summer of 1931 the workers went on strike. However, their rally was brutally suppressed. The builders moved into more or less normal houses only six months later. In total, the Hoover Dam was built by more than five thousand people. Interestingly, gambling, prostitution and liquor were banned in Boulder City. By the way, there are no gambling establishments here today.
During the construction of the dam, many innovations were used. So, for example, here for the first time in history, workers used helmets that protect their heads.
In addition, engineers have developed a unique concrete cooling system. The fact is that the Hoover Dam could not be built as a monolithic structure, because then the concrete would have cooled for as long as 125 years. It was decided to build a dam of trapezoidal columns in order to reduce the cooling time of the concrete. For even greater effect, special metal pipes were made into which cooled water from the river flowed. By the way, in total, 3.33 million cubic meters of concrete and about 729 million USD in terms of modern money were spent on the construction of the dam.
This dam is considered the largest man-made structure built since the time of the Egyptian pyramids.
Already in 1935, ahead of schedule, the Hoover Dam was inaugurated. Of course, many of the works were not yet completed, and they were fully completed only a year later. Already in 1937, the dam became a popular tourist attraction. Today, 9 million tourists come to see this attraction every year. The main task was completed – Colorado stopped flooding the lands downstream. However, many species of animals and plants are on the verge of extinction due to such global human interventions. Lake Mead, formed by the dam, became the largest reservoir in the States.
The image of the Hoover Dam has been used in many works of art. So, for example, the dam is mentioned in the book by Ilf and Petrov “One-story America”, in the films “Transformers” and “Universal Soldier” and the cartoon “Beavis and Butt-Head Do America”.
