Facts about Hoover Dam
Hoover dam, a tourist destination in the United States, is the 18th highest dam in the world. Read on to know more about Hoover Dam.
Hoover Dam is a concrete structure, built in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, situated on the border of Nevada and Arizona, in the United States. The dam measures 726.4 feet in height (it is taller than the Washington Monument), 1,224 feet in length and is 660 feet thick at the base. At the time of its completion, in 1935, it was the largest concrete structure and the largest electric-power generating station in the world. However, in 1945, the record was taken over by the Grand Coulee Dam, built on Columbia River. Here are some of the interesting facts about the Hoover Dam.
Facts about Hoover Dam
Can you imagine what must be the weight of Hoover Dam? Well! It is 6.6 million tons. It was built with approximately 4,360,000 cubic yards of concrete. The concrete used to build Hoover dam, was cured with cooling tubes. If traditional methods had been used then, it would have taken at least 100 years for completion.
The main objective behind the Hoover Dam project was to regulate the Colorado River, which at times overflowed, posing a threat to the nearby community. The reservoir created behind the Hoover dam is called Lake Mead, named after Elwood Mead, the head of the Bureau of Reclamation during the time. Today, it is the largest reservoir of the world, with a surface area of 146,000 acres.
It was estimated that about 16,000 people were employed for the construction of Hoover Dam, with about 3,500 employed at a time. The overall construction cost of the Hoover Dam was $49,000,000.
Hoover Dam was built by the Bureau of Reclamation, United States. Hoover Dam was previously known as Boulder Dam, as it was to be built in Boulder Canyon. However, for better impoundment, the project was relocated to Canyon Dam.
In February 14, 1931, the name was officially changed to Hoover Dam under the Congressional Act. It was named in honor of Herbert Clark Hoover, the 31st President of the United States and a mining engineer by profession, who made significant contributions to the construction of the dam.
In 1981, Hoover Dam was enlisted in the United States National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). However, it was only in 1985 that Hoover Dam was registered as a National Historic Landmark.
Hoover Dam has a storage capacity of 9.2 trillion gallons of water in its reservoir, the Lake Mead. Its 17 power generators have the capacity to produce 2,000 megawatts of electricity. To be more precise, it supplies electricity to more than 750,000 people and is a water source to over 25 million people in southwest United States.
One of the amazing facts about Hoover Dam is that it is made up of more masonry than the Pyramid of Giza.
It’s no wonder that the Hoover Dam is considered as one of the seven modern engineering wonders by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). About 4,000 tourists visit Hoover Dam everyday.
