Hoover Dam and Lake Mead

We decided to spend a day with a road trip from Las Vegas - Hoover Dam - Flagstaff - Grand Canyon. Our first stop is Hoover Dam since it is just 45 minutes drive from the Las Vegas Strip. 

Hoover Dam has long been recognized nationally and internationally as one of the world's greatest engineering and construction achievement and today it is one of the most popular tourist attraction. 

It was constructed in 1931 during the Great Depression to protect farmland in southern California from flooding by the Colorado River thus the creation of the largest man-made reservoir of Lake Mead in North America. The Bureau of Reclamation planned the project and designed the dam at the Arizona - Nevada border.

Built of 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete, the dam is 726 feet high, 660 feet thick at the base, and 1,244 feet long at the crest. It was the highest dam in the world from 1935 - 1967 and the largest hydroelectric plant in the world from 1936 - 1949. 

Before the dam could be built, the Colorado River needed to be diverted away from the construction site. Four diversion tunnels (17 m in diameter each) were driven through the canyon walls, two on the Nevada side and two on the Arizona side. In order to facilitate the river's diversion, two cofferdams were constructed. This was done by exploding a temporary cofferdam protecting the Arizona tunnels while at the same time dumping rubble into the river until its natural course was blocked.

The powerplant is located in a U-shaped structure at the base of the dam completed in late 1933. Each powerplant wing is 650 feet long (almost 2 football fields) and rise 299 feet (nearly 20 stories) above the powerplant foundation. There are 17 main turbines in the Hoover Powerplant, 9 on the Arizona wing and 8 on the Nevada wing. The plant have the capacity of about 2,080 megawatts.

 

As a result, water and power from Hoover Dam and Lake Mead have provided vital benefits to the southwest and the nation. Water from Lake Mead irrigates farmland in southern California and southwestern Arizona. Fruit and vegetables grown in these areas are consumed across the country year round. 

Lake Mead supplies municipal water to Las Vegas, Phoenix, and 33 communities in the Los Angeles area. Hoover Dam generates 4 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year, enough for 1.3 million people. This power is renewable and does not produce air pollution or toxic waste. Income from the sale of electricity pays all the operating costs of the dam.

Lake Mead was established as the country's first national recreation area in 1964. It is the 5th most visited park in the National Park system. The lake covers 247 square miles and has 700 miles of shoreline. The recreation area covers 1.5 million acres and attracts more than 9 million visitors each year for swimming, boating, skiing, fishing and other outdoor pursuits. It also serves as a protected home for desert wildlife such as bighorn sheep, coyotes, jack rabbits, and desert tortoises.