Hoover Dam with the Mike O'Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge

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. MIKE O’CALLAGHAN – PAT TILLMAN MEMORIAL BRIDGE The central portion of the Hoover Dam Bypass Project is called the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge (or Colorado River Bridge). Begun in January 2005, the 2,000-foot-long bridge features a 1,060-foot twin-rib concrete arch and spans the Black Canyon about 1,500 feet south of the Hoover Dam. Open to traffic in October 2010, the signature bridge conveniently connects the Arizona and Nevada Approach highways nearly 900-feet above the Colorado River.

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