Hoover Dam

Spanning the Colorado River in Black Canyon between Arizona and Nevada 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas, the Hoover Dam was constructed in the 1930s. Originally known as Boulder Dam, the dam was renamed in 1947 for Herbert Hoover, who proved instrumental in getting the dam built as U.S. Secretary of Commerce and the 31st U.S. President. The concrete arch-gravity structure was intended to prevent flooding and provide much needed irrigation and hydroelectric power to arid regions of California and Arizona. At 726 feet high and 1,244 feet long, Hoover Dam was one of the largest manmade structures in the world at its construction and one of the world’s largest producers of hydroelectric power. At the generator room, visitors learn how water enters the intake towers next to the dam wall then is carried by penstock pipes to turbines, which spin the generators. The dam features nine generators on the Arizona side, eight on the Nevada side and two small ones for the internal power for the plant and dam workings.

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