one of the most prolific rivers in America is the Colorado and by far the most famous site
along it is the Hoover Dam the tallest concrete Arch dam in the United States it's a symbol of
the American response to struggle in the face of adversity and although it costs over a hundred
workers their lives America would be a different place and arguably worse place without it today
we discover the history of Hoover Dam I'm your host Ryan socash and you're watching it's history
foreign this story shows just how politically complicated the creation of Hoover Dam was and
how important access to information is which is why I'd like to tell you a little bit about the
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the story of Hoover Dam starts in the southwestern United States a notoriously dry region initially
the region was sparsely populated enough that its limited water supply could sustain its inhabitants
but as cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco grew during the late 19th and early 20th centuries
Regional water became increasingly sparse so naturally the United States turned to the
Colorado River one of the largest natural sources of water in the region you see the Colorado River
originates from La puder pass Lake in the Rocky Mountains it flows Southwest for 1450
miles through Colorado Utah New Mexico Nevada and Arizona ending in California where it rains
into the Gulf of California in northern Mexico accordingly it forms part of the border between
the two Nations thus forming the region in more ways than one notably erosion from the Colorado
River is what created the Grand Canyon in Arizona so when it came to a water shortage surely it held
the solution to those early settlers plight still even if it could quench one's thirst the Colorado
River itself posed many issues that burdened the growing population like all Rivers it flooded
often causing sweeping damage such as the floods between 1905 and 1907 which drowned well over 100
000 Acres of Farmland in Southern California's Imperial Valley it even left behind a lake the
Salton Sea which has since seen better times hence the Imperial Irrigation District eventually
appealed to the government for Aid and flood control after World War one which wasn't the first
time Washington acted on this issue seriously as early as the 1890s the United States began
financing construction projects diverting the water of the Colorado River across the region
among the earliest examples of this was the Alamo Canal beginning Construction in 1900 and opening
in 1901. however it should be mentioned that factors such as silting and a major breach led to
the canal contributing to the aforement mentioned floods that created the Salton Sea anyhow the
breach closed in early 1907 but the damage was already done at that moment the region set its
course for the early 20th century flood control and irrigation to prevent something like this
from ever happening again in 1922 the states of Arizona California Colorado Nevada New Mexico Utah
and Wyoming signed the Colorado River compact which defined water rights between the seven
states within the Colorado River's drainage basin it defines Colorado Utah Wyoming New Mexico and
Arizona as the upper Basin in California Arizona and Nevada as the lower another provision of this
compact involves Federal investment into dams and Reclamation one of the first big results of
this was the Boulder Canyon project act where the Bureau of Reclamation authorized the creation of
a multi-purpose water storage project this project at the time known as Boulder Dam had an estimated
cost of 49 million dollars or 691 million dollars in 2022 with the price tag this steep support was
initially underwhelming but eventually President Coolidge approved its construction initially the
planned location for the dam was Boulder Canyon hence the name however after planners detected
a major active fault in the proposed location a new site had to be selected that was to be
Black Canyon a little further Downstream on the Nevada Arizona border however for the time being
the name Boulder Dam stuck though that name wouldn't last construction on the dam began
in 1931 with a legion of workers blasting off the canyon walls to make room for hydraulic tunnels
these temporarily diverted the river flow so that they could build the dam without being
flooded and this was not the only challenge as the high temperatures and the unventilated
carbon monoxide threatened the workers lives as much as the water did the poor conditions and a
wage cut led to a strike in August of 1931 but ended after six days with a promise against any
further wage reductions there was no improvement to conditions it was a miserable workspace the
interior of the tunnels reached temperatures as high as 140 degrees Fahrenheit and the heat almost
killed one worker every two days in the summer of 1933 after the construction of these two tunnels
finished they established a temporary Coffer Dam an enclosure made specifically for construction
consisting of rock and gravel from the materials they already excavated the construction teams
extracted four tunnels to divert the river two on each side of the Nevada Arizona border 1932
saw the first successful diversion using the two tunnels on the Arizona side as the main
water routes leaving the Nevada side for backups a second Coffer Dam went up around the construction
area using more debris allowing the concrete pouring to begin in the summer of 1933 however
since there was so much concrete to pour if they were to have poured it all at once the dam would
have been too weak to hold off any water as the concrete is settled and cured it contracts and
if the concrete is cured unevenly and the dam it would crack and collapse and that's to say nothing
of the curing time as the Bureau of Reclamation estimated the whole process could take over 100
years as a result the construction went piece by piece creating sections with interlocking
concrete blocks water pipes running through the blocks increased the speed of the concrete curing
the construction team poured grout into cement blocks which is a mixture of water cement and
sand sealing it tight after the team poured 2.5 million square meters of concrete the dam
was completed in the spring of 1935. I'd like to offer you just a little scale on how much material
was used here in total the 6.6 million tons of concrete could pave a road from San Francisco
to New York it has 22 500 tons of supporting steel running through the concrete despite
all these obscenely high numbers Boulder Dam actually finished construction ahead of schedule
so I bet by now you're wondering why you never heard the Dam's original name before Boulder
Dam well on September the 30th 1930 Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur dedicated the
dam to president Herbert Hoover and the name was made official by congressional act on the 14th
of February 1931. however Hoover became a quite controversial president due to his actions during
the Great Depression which well meant to alleviate the strain of it also brought the nation more harm
after he left office some call to revert the dam to its previous name but it never officially
changed in fact in 1947 the name was reinforced the dam itself went on to carry a stellar Public
Image but for president Hoover's reputation you might say the game was rigged from the start
during the construction of Hoover Dam Las Vegas lobbied very hard to become the headquarters for
the construction concessions were made you see this was the era of prohibition when the United
States outlawed alcohol holic beverages so when decision makers the Secretary of interior Wilbur
came to inspect the city local authorities managed to close down all the speakeasies to better appeal
to the federal government despite best efforts Wilbur announced the creation of a completely
new city directly next to the construction site that would serve as HQ this city Boulder City
became the place where the Hoover Dam's many construction workers called home during the
construction even so Las Vegas didn't lose out entirely on this a rail line joined Vegas and
the dam site in the late 1930s and due to the large influx of people coming from all across
the western United States Las Vegas's population increased from just five thousand to upwards of 25
000. coincidentally this was also just around the time when the city Administration legalized casino
gambling so who knows if it wasn't for Hoover Dam the Silver City may have never gotten her shine
anyhow the dam still attract Legions of people to the area it's a major tourist attraction drawing
in 7 million people yearly travel is streamlined by U.S Route 93 which used to actually include
a road across the top of the dam while you can still drive across the top it's no longer a part
of Route 93 which now runs over a bypass Bridge a bit south of the structure and while you can still
drive across the Hoover Dam entry is from the Nevada side and there's no through traffic this
is logical as ever since the 1960s Transportation officials saw the route over the top of the Hoover
Dam as unfit for major traffic levels and so they brainstormed plans up to the late 1990s
when they agreed upon the current bypass solution the dam is an incredibly strong structure but the
pressure of the U.S Highway tempted fate a bit too much for most officials liking allow me to explain
the dam itself is solid concrete and steel below the road that runs across the top there's just
solid material and that makes sense if it was mostly Hollow it'd be easier to break and as it
stands the Canyons surrounding the Hoover Dam is more likely to break than the dam itself Engineers
estimate that the structure could last for well over ten thousand years without maintenance even
in the event of a nuclear war it's very likely that whatever survives in the Mojave Desert would
find the dam standing the dam holds river water within the man-made lake Mead and Water began
building in the reservoirs before the dam was even completed intake Towers at the top rise and lower
Gates within the structure not unlike a canal water goes through header intakes down large pipes
called pen stocks into the PowerHouse where the water operates 17 turbines to generate electricity
and then flows through yet another set of pen stocks into the outlet system entering the river
Channel Downstream there are several systems in place in the event of an emergency to shut water
out of the turbines and Pen stocks for example in June of 1998 a blast of water from the outlet
system sent small waves down the Colorado River during new jet flow testing the new outlet Gates
increased the released water capacity by 23 000 cubic feet per second for reference a cubic foot
is about seven and a half gallons 27 feet below the top of the dam holds two spillways ready to
take any more water if the water level got that high these spillways are large enough to keep a
battleship afloat and as such can take whatever extra water is needed out of the reservoir
they've only been used twice once in 1941 during a test and another time in 1983 after a flood in
all of its years of operation the Hoover Dam has never once let water over the top of it speaking
volumes as to how well it was designed Lake Mead itself is enormous its maximum capacity is 112
miles long and 532 feet deep at its lowest point it is 1229 feet above sea level with a surface
area of 247 square miles its water capacity is a staggering 9 trillion gallons which is
enough water to submerge the entire state of Pennsylvania at one foot it's also enough to
store the entire flow of the Colorado River for two years however ever since the flood of 1983
increased water demand and drought have kept the reservoir below full capacity in fact as of 2022
the lake is at an all-time low at 1042 feet above sea level and could drop below 1 000 feet as early
as the summer of 2024 in response the dam will decrease Downstream water delivery by 4.44 percent
preserving more water for the region one more thing sharp-eyed viewers May notice that there
are several buildings at the foot of the dam four stand out two on either side of
the Colorado these are the Nevada and Arizona power and valve houses the powerhouses make up
a massive and extremely powerful hydroelectric plant Hoover Dam's hydroelectric facility was
the largest in the world from 1939 to 1949 as nine of its 10 generators were activated
the final generator came online in 1961 bringing the generating capacity to 1 345 megawatts later
seven more generators came online and since 1940 its minimum annual net generation is 2 billion
648 million 224 700 kilowatt hours a kilowatt hour is energy equal to one kilowatt of power
acting for an hour and a kilowatt is equivalent to 1.34 horsepower that's a lot of horses this energy
goes all over the region including Arizona and Nevada obviously but it also supplies many cities
in California most notably Los Angeles lastly some might ask why the Hoover Dam is such a prevalent
image in American Media which is not an easily answered question as there are many aspects so
we'd like to point this out it's a giant wall of concrete built against many factors the
Arid surroundings the working conditions even the river itself stood in the way and yet in defiance
of all that one of the engineering marvels of the 20th century opened ahead of schedule speaking to
the spirit of America itself strength against adversity banding together against situations
imposed by man and nature alike to create something Larger than Life that will outlive
us all perhaps recalling the notion found on most coins minted by the United States e pluribus unum
out of many one many people many cultures many ideas struggles sacrifice and successes come one
country and from the many people who brought all of those to a Canyon in Nevada come one Hoover Dam