Hoover Dam

I visited Hoover Dam for the first time today. This engineering marvel was constructed during the Great Depression from 1931 to 1935. I don't remember the exact specifications...you can find them on the net...but it's over 600 feet high and when it was built was considered one of the foremost engineering wonders of the world. Actually, it still is, over 70 years later. It impounds Lake Mead, the largest manmade reservoir in the US. It supplies power to over a million homes throughout the desert southwest, and regulates water supplies in the thirstiest region of the US.

I took the powerhouse tour. These are some of the turbines...there are 17 in all...that are powered by the waters of Lake Mead. Sorry, the Old Sloat's enginering aptitude is near zero, but suffice to say the whole operation is a foremost Modern Marvel, as the History Channel would classify it.

Several huge tunnels were drilled through the rock during the construction of the dam, and some are still used to transport water to the electrical generation system. I thought this pic

of one of the massive water pipes was kind of futuristic, though this system has been operable for several decades. Incidentially, some of the folks who took the Bisbee mine tour last year might not like the dam tour; once again, I found myself deep down in the rock, hundreds of feet below the surface, with water dripping out of the stone.

By the way, Hoover Dam is a very efficient economic operation. The dam cost about 150 million dollars...well over a billion in today's money. But, the entire cost has been repaid, with interest, by the federal sale of power generated by the dam. The structure was completed over two years ahead of schedule and under budget. Today, all the dam's maintenance costs are paid for by continuing power sales. Taxpayers foot none of the bill. And, it was started under a Republican administration and completed under a Democratic administration. I reckon that at times, government can work!