Hoover Dam

We left Saint George tuesday morning, we decided to take a stop at the Hoover Dam and do a little sight seeing. For millions of years, the colorado river flowed along a 1400-mile course from colorado's Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of California, carrying water through the arid lands of American West. As early as 600 A.D. humans worked to harness its water for their use, and in the years of western settlement, growing populations came to rely increasingly on its waters for sustanance. In the 1800s and early 1900s, the river often flooded low-lying farmland and communities in the spring and early summer as it surged with water from melting snow. In late summer and early fall it often dried to a trickle, too low to divert. To protect the low-lying lands from flooding, and to assure a stable, year round water supply, the river needed to be controlled. In 1928 congress passed the boulder canyon project act, authorizing construction of the Hoover Dam. Construction Began in 1931, the project was completed two years ahead of schedule. It is to this day a world-renowned structure. In 1999 it was named the number five construction acheivement of the 20th century. It was such an amazing sight! The tour guide said that, 95 people were killed in the process of building the dam, that only includes the engineers who were killed on site, so for those that had injuries and ended up dieing on the hospital were not counted for! They worked 363 days a year 24 hours a day.

The bridge is estimated to be completed by the fall. They have been working on it for several years already, I personally would have thought that they would have it done by now.

Here is Lake Mead, America's largest man made reservoir. The water level is way below normal, in fact it is exactly 50 feet below!!

We went down in the tunnel to get the pipes, there are four main pipes that carry 88 thousand gallons of water per second, I could feel the ground below me vibrating!