David Whitley takes a day trip from Las Vegas to one of the world’s great engineering marvels.
The bottom of Hoover Dam from inside it – on the Arizona/ Nevada border.
It’s a childish first thought when staring out at the Hoover Dam, but it struck me anyway. “Gee, it must have taken a hell of a lot of beavers to do that.”
Of course, beavers didn’t really make the Hoover Dam. Lots and lots of people did, and it’s justifiably regarded as one of the greatest engineering projects of all time. It straddles what was formerly known as Black Canyon on the border between Nevada and Arizona, and as a result has created Lake Mead – one of the world’s largest man-made lakes.
Today, the dam provides electricity for around one million homes. But it’s interesting to learn that the hydro electric benefits weren’t the reason for it (although the power generated is eventually what paid for it).
The Visitor Center at the dam offers a reminder of how young and relatively wild part of the world this is. The early, indigenous inhabitants lived with the cycles of drought and flood that the feisty Colorado River provided. But once settlers arrived, trying to eke out something approaching a normal life, they found the Colorado wrought havoc and that floodwaters would effectively render land useless for two years at a time.
This was the reason that the dam was built – it was about water, not electricity. Those in the east dismissed this as a ‘western problem’ but eventually a gigantic Federal Government grant was awarded to build what would eventually become the Hoover Dam.
It was a mammoth task. The water of the Colorado had to be diverted through the canyon in four huge tunnels, kept from washing back over the dam site by two mini-dams. From there, it was a case of creating a barrier 221m high, 379m long and 200m thick at the base.
What’s incredible now was that at no stage did anyone know that the proposals would actually work. The dam is essentially a lot of concrete – enough to build a substantial pavement around the equator – poured down in blocks between the canyon walls. It’s not even joined to the sides in a bid to give some room for manoeuvre in the event of an earthquake.
Ironically, it’s these worries that make the Dam an extraordinary visitor experience. It’s not just a case of going up to the Visitor Center and taking a few pictures. Up until recently the main interstate road went across the top of the dam, causing numerous accidents as drivers stopped at the (now-removed) state line to take a picture. There’s also a miniature city of pipes and tunnels built into the canyon walls, some of which you’re allowed to see.
It’s only once you’re inside the inspection tunnels – incorporated in the design so that it could be seen whether any forces were moving the concrete blocks away from each other – that you realise you’re actually walking through the middle of the dam. At one point we branch off and head towards an vent window on the Colorado River side (well, it’d get somewhat deluged if it was on the Lake Mead side) and we find ourselves waving to the outside world from the middle of one of the most spectacular man made projects on earth. And that’s before you even move on to the power generation room…
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