We went to Las Vegas for a business trip, more on that later. First, we made a point, despite the 104-degree weather to visit Hoover Dam. About 20 years ago we drove over the dam but didn’t stop in for a visit. Time to remedy that.
Aside from an amazing engineering feat, this is also a wonderful example of Art Deco, seeing that it was constructed between 1931 – 1936. The wonderful copper structure in the foreground is the visitors center much newer than the Dam, I do love how it mimics the same design elements.
Some purists would call this Faux Deco, because it is much newer and wasn’t built during the Art Deco period. I say phooey to them, I hate those ‘purists’ design is design and good design should be kept alive and reused.
Boy is the surrounding desert stark, and very hot.
Which makes Lake Mead all the more impressive in its deep blue color.
There are two clocks on either side of the dam since the dam straddles Nevada and Arizona. Sorry, I didn’t walk over to take a picture of the Arizona clock – it was just too hot! Nevada is on the Pacific clock, while Arizona is on mountain time. But Arizona doesn’t switch over to day light savings, so during the summer, the clocks share the same time.
I know these two angels signify something, to me they are just beautiful Art Deco Sculptures. Can you see how the toes are shiny? Yup, people passing by rub those toes and the green patina has rubbed off.
Old terrazzo design by the angels.
And a more modern design inside the turbine room.
There are 17 of these turbines, half on the Nevada side and the half on the Arizona side. The massive amounts of electricity are sold, 56% to CA, 33% to Arizona and 19% to Nevada.
The wonderful thing about the power is that within 50 years, the dam had paid back every loan from the Federal government and now run on its own. The only federal dollars are for the visitor center. I wish all government projects were like this – paying for themselves.
It’s time for some of those exterior shots. Yes, you can find better ones, but I’m using what I could get on my camera. All of this concrete is still curing, the devised a cooling method with water, so they could continue to build up the dam, and yet, concrete takes a very long time to cure, especially when using over 3 million tons of concrete.
The water coming out from the turbines.
This image is amazing for a number of reasons, most notably the bridge. This was completed in 2010 as a by-pass, all the traffic on the dam was doing harm and was dangerous from a security point of view. The road on both sides is very treacherous, so a by pass on the freeway was called for.
It is the Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman bridge. Mike was a governor of Nevada and Pat Tillman was the football player from Arizona who joined the military and was killed in Afghanistan. I prefer naming bridges for heroes over politicians – but that’s me.
And now I will quote Wikipedia: “The bridge was the first concrete-steel composite arch bridge built in the United States,[5] and incorporates the widest concrete arch in the Western Hemisphere. At 900 feet (270 m) above the Colorado River, it is the second highest bridge in the United States after the Royal Gorge Bridge, and is the world’s highest concrete arch bridge”
One can hike the bridge, there is a pedestrian walkway, which must give incredible views of the dam itself. Once again, the heat prevented me from doing that, but I did see people walking up there.
The place was packed with tourists from all over America and the world. A well worth while place to visit. I just love massive engineering feats. A toast to human ingenuity.
Leah
I LOVE Hoover Dam. We try to go there every time we go to Las Vegas! The tour has changed so much since I was a child. It was kind of rinky-dink back in the day. It’s always wonderful seeing all that working machinery!