Monday, August 12, 2013

Hoover Dam

A ride in and around the Hoover Dam gives an in depth knowledge of how the dam was built. One cannot comprehend the engineering marvel.
 After listening to the complete history of how the Dam was built, what amazed me was the 50 feet diameter diversion tunnels that were built on either side to divert the Colorado river from the construction site. 

Building of the dam itself was epic.
How much of concrete has gone into the making of the dam can be gauged by this picture below.

The three pictures below show the size of a nut and bolt that was used in the construction.




From the table below it looked like the shovel operators were the highest paid.


The above picture shows the back of the dam. The gust of wind is very powerful at this point. My cap was blown away while taking this picture.
At its base (where the maximum water pressure is 45000 pounds per square foot) are these generators that could produce 3 million horsepower and provide electricity for three states.




A dash of green in the desert.


A statue depicting a worker in action. A total of 112 deaths were associated with the construction of the dam.
Some more statues indoors showing people at work.



I liked Hansen’s sculpture of the two winged figures flanking a flagpole.


You can drive your vehicle over the dam which can be seen in the video below.
The view of the dam from the air is clicked by Snakefisch in 2005 and reproduced in Wikipedia. The bypass bridge came later in 2010 in the wake of the terrorist threat and even today enclosed box trucks are not allowed on the dam.


The real wonder of this Dam was that it was completed 2 years before the scheduled time !!


This catapult (sling) caught my attention at the souvenir store. Reminded me of my childhood where we always had a “catty” tucked in our back pocket. We used to make it from the yoke cut out from a tree and the rubber from discarded tubes. The material for the sling came from the leftover leather thrown away by the cobbler. Total cost ? Absolutely nothing. Now the same are sold in fancy stores for $ 14.      



While driving away from the dam (to the Grand Canyon) we could gauge the temperature in the Arizona desert as can be seen from the picture above.

The video is below:


9 comments:

Cezar and Léia said...

Very interesting article!Impressive story about this place and you got great pictures!Thanks for sharing!
Léia

Priya Anandakumar said...

Lovely write up and lot of good info, nice pics... Thanks for sharing..

KParthasarathi said...

Awesome and what ingenuity in the making.The pictures gave a glimpse of the gigantic job that had has paved the way for supply of power to three states.Thank you so much as I would not have known about this achievement otherwise.

Ms Sparrow said...

I've never been to the Hoover Dam, so thanks for the tour!

Dee said...

Hello, here I am in Missouri and I've never been to Hoover Dam. You've shown me what I'm missing. Now I think I need to find a book and read about it. Thank you. Peace.

Pinku said...

Wow!! nice place, pretty pics and a very good read.

Waiting for one on the Grand Canyon now..

hamaarethoughts.com said...

yess I have been to this place too
:)
did ya visit grand canyon??

Haddock said...

Yes Harman, did visit it and a post is coming up soon.

padmaja said...

I didn't pay attention to all the details of the dam when I visited, now I read about it, I can recall what I enjoyed. look forward to your canyon pics! It is one subject that never tires me to paint.