Hoover Dam

Last May I went to the Grand Canyon and Vegas on a family vacation, but things have been so busy I haven’t had a change to write about my adventures. For the next three weeks I’ll be reliving my trip and sharing the history along the way!

Our first stop on the way to the Grand Canyon from the Vegas airport was the stunning Hoover Dam. My uncle and I took the extended Dam Tour, though it was more expensive, it was worth it to see the areas of the dam which have always been open to the public, as well as smaller passages.

The dam was built in the 1930s and is considered one of the greatest feats of engineering, not only because of its size but also because of the preparation needed to diver the river before the construction of the actual dam.

When entering the site you go through security and get a book which details the history of how and why the dam came do be. The first stop on the tour was into a viewing area of the 30-foot pipes that transport water from Lake Mead to the hydro-electric generators. The second stop is a viewing area for some of the generators. The viewing area was clearly one of the stops used to show the public the dam after it was first built, the floors have art-deco designs and the railing around the viewing area is also art deco in design.

The more rarely viewed area include tunnel where you can see the inspection records. Any cracks in the dam are traced and dated so they can be tracked. Also notice the outline of the boards that helped shape the concrete slabs of the dam.

The highlight of the tour was the view from the air vents. The dam has two sets of two vents, the tour takes you to the top vent on the Nevada side of the dam. From there you can view the river as well as stick your camera out to catch the curve of the dam.

The intake towers are the most distinctly Art Deco exterior parts of the dam. The dam falls in both Nevada and Arizona, so if you stand at the centre of it you can be in two places at once!

To tell you the truth, I never loved the Art Deco style before I visited the dam. But once we were there I could not help but notice all the deco detail, from the lights, elevator doors, tiled floors and clocks.

Besides the style which fascinated me, my two take aways were that the dam was built in a terraced style, pictures of its construction look similar to the configuration of rice fields. The other is that the dam is not attached at the sides or bottom, its fitted into groves and held in by the pressure of the water, this ensures it does not crack if there is seismic activity.