US trip #3 The Hoover Dam

#3 The Hoover Dam... 

& West Coast Weddings!

The second part was the title of my blog post for my every second Saturday slot yesterday at Writing Wranglers & Warriors. You can catch all of that post HERE.  The first part being this next installment of my US road trip diary.

Last Monday (29th August) I visited The Hoover Dam, an incredibly large structure which is situated at Black Canyon near the borders of Nevada and Arizona. 

This is by far the largest dam that I've ever seen, the scale and engineering of it very impressive. I've seen smaller Hydro Electric producing dams in Scotland, with a similar process, but the production at The Hoover Dam is staggering.

The Hoover Dam- Black Canyon by Nancy Jardine

Situated in Black Canyon, the dam was originally built as the Boulder Dam project to harness the power of the mighty Colorado River. This incredible feat of engineering was created between 1931 and 1936 in the searing heat of Nevada by thousands of workers from the architects and engineers to the concrete pourers, cooks and other ancillary workers.    

From the turn of the nineteenth century, the Colorado River was known for its capricious nature. Its flooding often caused devastating destruction though it was also noted as a main source of water for irrigation, though only to some who were lucky enough to harness it in a local way. By the late 1920s, serious investigation was undertaken to decide on the best location along the river for a dam to control the forces of the water. It was a feat of engineering never attempted before and no contractor was able to undertake the project on its own. A consortium  named the ‘Six Companies’ was formed to ensure all aspects of construction were in place and that the project would be viable with a positive outcome.

My family and I took the tour of the inside of the dam. It was highly informative and the initial video, though well worn, was great to watch because of the incredible old footage on film that was taken during construction. It was well worth the $15 entry fee. As well as the little introductory video, the tour around the facility was expertly guided which meant any questions could be physically answered at any location on the tour.

There are plenty of sites with much more detailed info on the dam and its history but I’m on holiday and only giving brief mention here of the details!

Visiting The Hoover Dam was a great start to our holiday!

Slainthe!