Why hoover dam

Later, when the construction site was moved to Black Canyon, the name stuck and the dam continued to be called Boulder Dam. So how did it come to be called Hoover Dam? In September , construction began on a railroad line that would terminate at the dam site.

During the groundbreaking ceremony for the line, it was announced that the new dam would be named for the then president, Herbert Hoover. In fact, the city was built in solely to house the 5, workers employed to build the dam. Boulder City was constructed on federal land and had no local mayor or other elected officials. Oddly enough, the entire city was managed by an employee of the U.

Bureau of Reclamation. This person had the power to institute rules as he saw fit. Hoover Dam was built between and , and those five years were not without disaster. Reports from the construction site list 96 deaths due to accidents.

In addition, 42 workers were reported to have died from illnesses while the dam was being built. However, today some historians believe that it was exposure to carbon monoxide in construction tunnels resulting in carbon monoxide poisoning, which actually caused these additional deaths.

To combat further attempts on the dam, U. Work started in April That summer, Southern Nevada sweltered through record-breaking temperatures for months. By June, just two short months into construction, the average daily temperature was reaching a high of degrees Fahrenheit. Why do you think President Coolidge's secretary of commerce led the discussions leading up to the Colorado River Compact?

What role might the federal government be able to play in making decisions like this? An acre-foot is the volume of water that would cover one acre one foot deep. Why do you think they used a measure like that, rather than something like gallons? How many gallons of water are in an acre-foot? How much would that weigh? What were some of the concerns people had about its construction?

How did Reclamation and Six Companies divide the work on the dam? Department of the Interior, ; and Donald C. The guide included the instructions excerpted below: 15 Minute Course in Engineering Full? In fact there are still quite a few nice canyons along the Colorado River.

You can take one of them—no one will miss it—maybe. And you will need to build some roads and erect a power line. At Boulder Dam they had to get the electricity from Los Angeles to build the dam which now sends electricity back to Los Angeles.

Sand and gravel—get quite a bit of this to mix with the cement; enough to make 4,, cubic yards of concrete. Pipe for ice water— miles of it will do. Plate steel for making pipes—88 million pounds—when you get into pipe 30 feet in diameter, you have to make your own. Structural steel, nuts, bolts—and other stuff like that—18 million pounds. Assorted steam shovels, etc.

Make them each 56 feet in diameter, then line them with three feet of concrete. When you finish you will have 3 miles of tunnel 50 feet in diameter. At the other end of the tunnels build another cofferdam to keep the water from backing up, pump the puddles out from between, and there you have it—a dry spot in the river, with the stream running right around it, through the tunnels. Lower several hundred men from the top on ropes and let them drill the cliffs full of holes.

Stuff the holes with dynamite, and blast it away. Repeat as necessary. Better do that right now. Build a platform so spectators can watch, and dig down about feet from the river bed to bed rock, removing all loose material as you go.

You are now ready to install the main portion of the dam. Concrete has a nasty habit of cracking. The lime in cement causes it to get hot when it is mixed with water. Obviously you must not allow this to happen when you are building a dam. If cracks were to appear in your dam it might cause severe criticism from people living below the dam—or from their heirs. It would take years for all that concrete in the dam to cool under normal conditions.

To hurry it up, string two or three miles of water pipe around through each five-foot layer of concrete as you pour it. From your ice plant, run ice cold brine through the pipes.

This will cause the mass to cool and shrink quickly. Your dam will be sealed tighter than a drum—and wedged between the canyon walls. Drill holes connecting them with two of the tunnels constructed in Lesson 4. Plug the upper end of the tunnels to cut off water from the lake. At flood time, if the lake rises high enough to reach the spillways, it can be turned out through these original tunnels. Erect a power house below the dam. Now drill holes through the cliffs from towers to power plant.

Connect them with pipes. As you make each section of pipe, X-ray it for defects. This completes our engineering course. Questions for Reading 2 1. This guide contains many large numbers. Can you think of ways to translate those numbers into comparisons with more familiar things, so that it would be easier to get a sense of how big the project was? The diversion tunnels were among the longest in the world when they were built. Six Companies thought that building them was the most critical part of the project.

Why do you think both Reclamation and Six Companies thought the diversion tunnels were so important? Do you agree? Explain your answer. Why was it important to speed up the cooling process? How long would it take for the concrete in the dam to cool by itself? The pipes are still there, buried in the concrete. The spillways at Hoover Dam are only used when the water in the reservoir is so high that it would otherwise overflow the top of the dam.

Why do you think the engineers thought they had to keep this from happening? In Lesson 1, the guide suggests, possibly not quite seriously, that you could take any canyon on the Colorado you wanted—"no one will miss it, maybe. What might people "miss" about these canyons if they were filled with water? Do you think anybody today would suggest that no one might notice if you flooded one of them? Why or why not? Augustin, , pages Used by permission. In addition to the 10, people who braved o heat to hear the speech in person, it was broadcast to a radio audience of millions of people.

This morning I came, I saw and I was conquered, as everyone would be who sees for the first time this great feat of mankind. We are here to celebrate the completion of the greatest dam in the world, rising feet above the bedrock of the river and altering the geography of a whole region; we are here to see the creation of the largest artificial lake in the world— miles long, holding enough water, for example, to cover the State of Connecticut to a depth of ten feet; and we are here to see nearing completion a power house which will contain the largest generators yet installed in this country.

All these dimensions are superlative. They represent and embody the accumulated engineering knowledge and experience of centuries; and when we behold them it is fitting that we pay tribute to the genius of their designers. We recognize also the energy, resourcefulness and zeal of the builders, who, under the greatest physical obstacles, have pushed this work forward to completion two years in advance of the contract requirements.

But especially, we express our gratitude to the thousands of workers who gave brain and brawn to this great work of construction. We know that, as an unregulated river, the Colorado added little of value to the region this dam serves.

When in flood the river was a threatening torrent. In the dry months of the year it shrank to a trickling stream. The gates of these great diversion tunnels were closed here at Boulder Dam last February. In June a great flood came down the river. It came roaring down the canyons of the Colorado, through Grand Canyon, Iceberg and Boulder Canyons, but it was caught and safely held behind Boulder Dam.

Across the desert and mountains to the west and south run great electric transmission lines by which factory motors, street and household lights and irrigation pumps will be operated in Southern Arizona and California. The price of Boulder Dam during the depression years provided [work] for 4, men, most of them heads of families, and many thousands more were enabled to earn a livelihood through manufacture of materials and machinery.

And this picture is true on different scales in regard to the thousands of projects undertaken by the Federal Government, by the States and by the counties and municipalities in recent years. Throughout our national history we have had a great program of public improvements, and in these past two years all that we have done has been to accelerate that program. We know, too, that the reason for this speeding up was the need of giving relief to several million men and women whose earning capacity had been destroyed by the complexities and lack of thought of the economic system of the past generation.

In a little over two years this great national work has accomplished much. We have helped mankind by the works themselves and, at the same time, we have created the necessary purchasing power to throw in the clutch to start the wheels of what we call private industry. Such expenditures on all of these works, great and small, flow out to many beneficiaries; they revive other and more remote industries and businesses. Labor makes wealth. The use of materials makes wealth. To employ workers and materials when private employment has failed is to translate into great national possessions the energy that otherwise would be wasted.

Boulder Dam is a splendid symbol of that principle. The mighty waters of the Colorado were running unused to the sea. Today we translate them into a great national possession. Today marks the official completion and dedication of Boulder Dam. This is an engineering victory of the first order—another great achievement of American resourcefulness, American skill and determination. That is why I have the right once more to congratulate you who have built Boulder Dam and on behalf of the Nation to say to you, "Well done.

During the s, the big dam on the Colorado was usually called the "Boulder Canyon Project" or sometimes "Boulder Dam. Why do you think he used the old name in his speech? In , Congress unanimously changed the name back to "Hoover Dam. What three groups did Roosevelt credit with the building of the dam?

Which group's contributions do you think he valued the most? What makes you think so? Do you agree, based on what you know so far? The President identified benefits the new dam had already provided. What were they? Whom did they benefit?

Roosevelt strongly defended the work relief projects for which his administration was famous. What arguments did he use? Do you think he made a good case?

If you were reading or listening to Roosevelt's speech in , would you think that Hoover Dam was one of his New Deal work relief projects? Was it? This image shows three views of the dam.

The left side shows what a visitor looking upstream at the dam would actually see. The cut-away view on the right side shows features that would not be visible from the surface. Although not shown in the illustration, all of the features shown in the cut-away are duplicated on the other side of the dam.

The cross section in the upper right hand corner is a side view. Look carefully at the cut-away view. Can you trace the course the water follows from the reservoir through the power plants and outlet works and then back into the river? How does that change if the level of the reservoir is getting too high? How many of the features mentioned in Reading 2 can you find in this image? Is the image or the reading more useful in helping you understand Hoover Dam? Reclamation engineers prepared hundreds of drawings for the construction company—all much more detailed than this simplified illustration.

Why do you think the detailed drawings were necessary? How do you think the engineers decided where to locate the features shown here?

Look at the drawing in the upper right hand corner. Why do you think the dam had to be so thick at the bottom? Find the penstocks that carry the water from the intake towers to the horseshoe-shaped powerhouse at the foot of the dam. One of the definitions of "penstock" is a pipe or conduit that carries water from a reservoir to electrical generating equipment.

The Boulder Canyon Project Act said that the cost of building Hoover Dam had to be repaid by selling electricity and that contracts for all the electricity had to be signed before construction began. Why do you think that was required? When the contracts were signed, almost two thirds of the electricity went to Southern California. Why do you think that might have been the case?

Boulder City Museum and Historical Association; photographer unknown. How many men can you count in Photo 1? Why do you think so many people came to this remote and hostile location looking for work? What were conditions like in America in ? Refer to your textbook if necessary. Describe the setting in these images. The average high temperature in this area in August is degrees.

Summer temperatures in the canyon can easily reach degrees. The area is also prone to cloudbursts, high winds, and sudden floods. What do you think working here would be like? Do you think you would have come here looking for a job? Many of the men seeking work brought their families with them. Why do you think they did that?

Work on the dam began sooner than originally planned. Housing for workers in the new town of Boulder City wasn't ready when these photos were taken.

Families created a temporary community called "Ragtown. Describe the shelter shown in Photo 2. Do you think this would have been adequate? Because of this, Utah Construction Company started working with other construction companies in the area to build a consortium of construction firms until they, together, were big enough to bid on this project. By the end of the talks, there were six companies that had come together for the project. Together, they made up the Six Companies Inc.

Six Companies Inc was created in February of and went on to complete a few other large projects. After surveying and choosing Black Canyon as the spot to build the dam, explosives were used to blast away the sides of the canyon for construction.

Dredging the bottom of the canyon, blasting and removing debris and digging to build the foundation took just over a year. Moving debris, drilling holes for explosives and levelling the foundation required constant work by laborers.

Giant concrete blocks were fitted into place and used to build the dam itself. Over 5, workers were employed to build the dam. The average for all of the workers at the dam was about Working the dam construction meant long days and dangerous work, Temperatures could top degrees during the day just over 48 degrees Celsius in the summer and drop well below freezing in the winter.

The blasting and explosives used during construction as well as the digging and building in desert sand created terrible air quality on site. Workers actually went on strike for a portion of the summer in Their demands included ice water, flush toilets, and that the Six Companies follow mining laws since they were blasting through bedrock and digging diversion tunnels at the time. Despite all these challenges, employment at the dam was a sought-after gig.

Some men and their families moved up towards Nevada in hoping to reserve employment. The dam was built right in the middle of the Great Depression so the idea of long-term employment — no matter how dangerous — was appealing. Entire families lived in makeshift homes and quickly-build towns in the middle of nowhere. Boulder City, Nevada was constructed to house all the contractors working the job and their families.

Despite what the stories say, no bodies were buried within the concrete of the dam. Officially, 96 people died during construction. Struck by, drowning, falling debris, blasting and other construction-related deaths are included in this number. The Hoover Dam is an iconic piece of American history and its landscape.

The name of the Hoover Dam changed a few times during its first few decades.