- 36mm
- 1/250
- ƒ/16
- ISO 400
Hoover Dam
This post is a followup to
Vegas Vignette.
While we were in Vegas, Ava and I took a side trip out to Hoover Dam. It's big, really big, 726 feet tall. When finished in 1936, the 6,600,000 ton concrete structure was the tallest dam in the world, and it's still the 33rd tallest dam in the world today.
The dam spans the Colorado River. One side lies in Nevada, the other in Arizona.
We took a short raft tour on the Colorado River below the dam, which let me take the big photo above.
The dam, originally called the Boulder Canyon Project, was actually built in Black Canyon. It's sort of a long story.
If you look really closely, you can see the dam in Ava's sunglasses.
- 25mm
- 1/200
- ƒ/16
- ISO 400
(far right) One of the four intake towers. Water spills into these towers, then falls through to the power generation rooms below.
The lettering under the clock reads "Nevada Time". One of the spill towers on the other side of the state border has a similar clock for "Arizona Time".
The dam's style is both Gothic and Art Deco. We geeked out.
- 17mm
- 1/3200
- ƒ/11
- ISO 400
- 40mm
- 1/640
- ƒ/16
- ISO 400
- 131mm
- 1/250
- ƒ/16
- ISO 400
- 17mm
- 1/320
- ƒ/16
- ISO 200
The dam has two long generator rooms at its base, one on each side of the state line.
Hydroelectric power was not, and is not, the primary purpose of the dam. Rather, the dam's construction was seen as a means to control the regular flooding of the Colorado and manage the river as a source of irrigation and municipal water.
Nevertheless, the dam houses 17 main hydroelectric generators for a total operating capacity of 2,080 megawatts.
- 30mm
- 1/40
- ƒ/3.2
- ISO 400
When we visited, only five of the generators on the Nevada side were in use.
- 200mm
- 1/100
- ƒ/4
- ISO 800
Everywhere you look power lines cross the canyon. It's almost kind of hard to believe the tour guides when they say that power generation is a secondary concern.
- 40mm
- 1/200
- ƒ/11
- ISO 200
- 17mm
- 1/400
- ƒ/16
- ISO 400
One of two bronze Winged Figures of the Republic by Oskar J.W. Hansen, built as a monument to the construction project and its workers.
The work on the dam was dangerous, and officially 96 workers died on the project. But those who died of injuries offsite at hospitals were not tallied in the final count, nor were deaths due to heatstroke and heart disease.
Traffic on the 93 across the dam is notoriously bad, and work is underway building a new bypass just south of the dam. Unlike Hoover Dam, which was completed ahead of schedule and under budget, the bypass is both late and over budget.
When completed, trailer trucks will be able to use the shorter route across the bridge. Because of a change to security policy after the terrorist attacks on September 11th, commercial vehicles must currently make a long detour on Highway 95 to cross the river.
- 26mm
- 1/1000
- ƒ/4.5
- ISO 100
In the other direction: Lake Mead, the the largest reservoir in the U.S. Even here, you can't escape the criss-crossing power lines.
The lake is really low right now. If you look at the small islands of rock in the middle, the lake should be to the top of the white rock.
- 17mm
- 1/250
- ƒ/16
- ISO 200
The construction of the dam has disrupted and endangered the Colorado Rivers's wildlife and devastated its estuaries. But standing at the base of the 700 foot concrete structure, it's hard not to be impressed. If Vegas is everything showy and indulgent about us, the dam is everything stately and majestic, a tremendous engineering feat and magnificent structure.
I can't tell you how many times I had to Search and Replace "damn" in this dam post.