• Hoover Dam - Boulder City, Nevada

      by
      Peter Thody
      Published on 06-16-2011 12:12 AM
      1 Comment Comments
      Hoover Dam
      Photo by Peter Thody
      A genuine modern wonder of the world, Hoover Dam was constructed in the 1930s and has gone on to capture the imagination of the American people. The facts and figures are staggering: the dam is 726.4 feet high, 1244 feet wide, 660 feet thick at the base, and was constructed with 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete. The water held behind the dam in Lake Mead, North America's largest man-made reservoir, meets the needs of more than 20 million people and generates huge amounts hydroelectric power. And yet nothing quite prepares you for the immensity of this awe-inspiring feat of engineering.

      If you go:
      It's still possible to drive across the dam but since the opening in 2010 of the Mike O'Callaghan - Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, it is no longer open to through traffic; you can cross from Nevada to Arizona but you'll then have to turn around and come back the same way.

      Links:




      Nevada SR172
      Boulder City, Nevada 89005 USA

      Mailing address:
      Lower Colorado Dams Office
      P.O. Box 60400
      Boulder City, NV 89006 USA

      Phone Numbers:

      Information
      +1 (702) 494-2517

      Toll Free
      +1 (866) 730-9097

      Tags: arizona, dam, nevada
      Comments 1 Comment
      1. Mark Sedenquist's Avatar
        Mark Sedenquist - 06-16-2011, 11:38 AM
        Lots of stories about this place. I was fortunate on one tour to have the public elevator fail -- trapping about 25 tourists for an hour and so our smaller group were led to through the non-public areas of the dam to the contractor elevator. Very, very, cool down there. All of the walkways are "finished" with marble and designs.

        One of the more interesting aspects of a dam tour... the dam was built in such a manner to purposely leak... thus allowing the water to cool the cement over time. So on every level in the dam, there is water flowing in the sidewalk gutters and you can hear water flowing.