Hoover Dam – once known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the US states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over one hundred lives. The dam was controversially named after President Herbert Hoover.
Hoover Dam – At 726 feet high and 1,244 feet long, Hoover Dam was one of the largest man-made structures in the world at the time of its construction, and one of the world’s largest producers of hydroelectric power. Hoover Dam supplies electricity to more than 20 million people.
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The Hoover Dam is one of the tallest concrete dams ever built and it created one of the largest man-made lakes in the United States. At 726.4 feet tall, it took 200 engineers from several consulting firms and the Bureau of Reclamation to design the dam. It has 3,125,000 cubic yards of concrete and weighs more than 6.6 million tons! Construction of the dam, power plant, and related works took five years to build and was finished two years ahead of schedule. The reservoir created can hold enough water to cover the entire state of Pennsylvania with water one foot deep.
Engineering ideas
- concrete, arch, gravity, hydroelectric, electricity
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- Hoover Dam
- Dams – more interesting engineering facts
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