Hoover Dam Project Construction

Hoover dam is America's most famous landmark, completed in 1935. This great American icon was to be the largest and heaviest dam, producing the largest amount of Hydro electric power in the world.At the time of construction (1935), Hoover Dam was the largest in the world and although long since surpassed it is still an amazing structure and a marvel of engineering

21000 men took part in its construction and of them 112 laid their lives to complete this megastructure. Though its not the superior dam today but still most famous, iconic and greatest dam ever built. Situated in Mojave desert, 30 Km south-east of Las Vegas. a huge, curving wall of plain concrete 660 feet thick at the base and 726 feet high set between the vertical walls of Black Canyon, accompanied by strangely-angled pylons, cables, power generating plants and other machineryBuilt on Colorado River at Black Canyon, the construction site was extremely difficult.Hoover Dam is 221 m high, 201 meters thick and 3.4 million cubic meters of concrete has been used in it.In 1955, the dam was selected as one of the Seven Modern Engineering Wonders in the USA by the American Society of Civil Engineers, and it is was later designated a National Historic Landmark. Also known as Boulder Dam, the usual name commemorates the 31st president Herbert Hoover, who was in office during the start of the project.

Hoover Dam Construction

Colorado, worlds one of the most powerful and unpredictable rivers, would break its banks in every spring and flood the area. The Government instructed the Bureau of Reclamation to come up with a solution and they decided to build world's largest dam. The site chosen for the megastructure Hoover Dam was Black Canyon. It is an 800 ft high deep gorge through which the river flowed. The spot, Black canyon is in the middle of the desert, so there was no infrastructure, no labors, no transportation and the weather too was harsh.

Frank Crow, was the Chief Engineer of Hoovered Dam and was assigned the job to get it completed in the span from 1931 – 1935. The construction of Hoover took 7 years at a cost of $ 125 million. Nowadays this amount is about 788 million pounds. If the dam was not completed in the given time it would have cost the contractors $ 3000 / day in financial penalties.

Hoover Dam Statistics - Hoover Facts

726.4 feet high (221 m)

1,244 feet wide (379 m)

660 feet (203 m) thick at the base

45 feet (13 m) thick at the top

$165 million dollars to build

4.5 years to build

4.4 million yards of concrete used for construction

March 1931 building began

September 30, 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the completed dam

Powerhouse

17 generators

4+ billion kilowatt hours produced each year

10 acres of floor space

Power used by:

56% California

25% Nevada

19% Arizona

Lake Mead
6.5 years to fill (A slow filling process was required to lessen the pressure change on the dam and to help prevent small earthquakes due to land settlement.)

589 feet (181 m) at the deepest point

247 square miles in size

110 miles (176 km) long

Named after Dr. Elwood Mead, Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation (1924 - 1936)

Largest man made reservoir in the United States