(upbeat music)
- Welcome back to What's Inside.
I'm Lincoln and this is Dan.
And today we have two really cool statues right here.
- We're at one of my favorite places
and one of the most interesting places
in the entire world, the Hoover Dam in Nevada.
This is the third in our series, where we're working
with the Department of Interior and touring
the National Parks and Monuments around the United States.
So today, they gave us special access.
We're going so you the dam, but places that you don't
- You. - get to go on the tour.
They're taking us on a special tour and showing us
cool things that people don't usually see.
Get ready for some awesomeness, let's go.
Look down there Linc.
- Whoa.
(suspenseful music)
- Do not fall down there Lincoln, no leaning.
(cracking)
Off the tippy toes.
So there's a road that goes right on top of the dam
and curves around the arch part.
There's the water and then on the other side,
you've got the other side of the dam,
but then right here, just off the middle,
you have these plaques and this big metal door.
This is where the elevators are.
We're going down under.
This is just an elevator room.
Look at that.
I feel like we're in a bank vault.
- It's nice and cold in here.
- It's like golden elevator, and then outside the road.
Oh there's the police, hide from the police.
(dramatic music)
- That door's really cool.
- Bye Lincoln see you at the bottom.
Wait no.
We dropped 500 feet in that elevator.
We're definitely under water.
I guess technically.
- That's a cool tunnel.
Echo.
- That's good, that's good.
So once we walk out of this tunnel, we're going to be
in the main station underneath.
Cause you see the dam, it curves.
This is where the power is generated.
Come check this out.
- Whoa.
- [Dan] Giant turbines.
Look right down there.
- What is this place?
- This is it man, this is how two million watts of energy
are produced a year.
Water comes down, goes through the pipes,
comes into these turbines, spins the turbines
and then is spit back out the other side.
There's eight on the Nevada side and
nine on the Arizona side, 17 in total.
If here was all of a sudden an increased need
and somewhere the power customers said,
we need more energy, within four seconds
they can flip on one of those and energy
can start going through.
Now down here, this little tiny red one,
it doesn't look like much.
This right here, generates all the power that's needed
for the dam.
This is a 1.2 ton copper thing that goes right
in the middle of the generator and comes back down here
with the magnets and when thing gets spinning,
that's what generates the power.
And that's what's inside of these giant generators.
And these are some pretty big cranes,
and they can hook things up if they need to fix things
or replace things.
That's what it looks like when they do open up
the other valves and it spills out.
It's the part of the tour where Lincoln get a hard hat,
put's it on.
- Pullin' my hair.
Ah, there we go.
- Safety first.
All right, so that's where we were on the other side,
the Arizona side.
Now we have our hard hats on because we're going down
by the generators, the giant generators.
Check this out.
There's Lincoln.
Lincoln, look how big that is compared to you.
There's the generator.
- It doesn't really vibrate that much.
It's kinda surprising.
- It is surprising, there's a lot of power
going through there right now.
Oh!
- [Man] That's what gives out of the whole--
- That's the one that powers all the dam.
- What's inside a giant generator that generates
power and electricity for this entire dam structure.
- This.
- We just happened to be here, when they're taking apart
one of them.
You have these giant buckets that the water's
going to push and spin this around, which in turn,
those are all magnets that go all around.
This is it, you're seeing inside of a giant generator
right now.
I can't believe we're here.
- That's what's inside it.
- That is.
All right, I'm blown away.
This is too cool.
(dramatic music)
This is a massive piece of machinery right here.
But this is where they come and they bring
the turbans and they set them on here.
You can see the grids down here on the machine.
So the turban will lock down into there
and they can spin it.
This giant machine will actually come down and shave
the turban, the turbine.
Turban or turbine?
I always say that wrong.
- Turban.
- Turbine.
There are a lot of people that are consistently
maintaining this dam and making sure that everything
is flowing smoothly.
I mean this is a crucial part of the United States
energy usage, pretty much for Nevada, Arizona,
and even California.
There's your giant generators right there.
The question is, what's underneath the generators.
What does it look like?
We got our earplugs, I guess it's going to be loud.
(upbeat music)
This looks like the permafrost tunnels,
but right now, we're walking into a cave tunnel with rock.
- What is smells like?
It smells like water.
- [Dan] It does smell like water.
There's a lot of water around us.
- [Man] This is one of the oldest dam tunnels we have.
- [Dan] It only happens when the toilets flush.
- Oh nice.
- [Dan] I'm just kidding.
That's a good one.
(dramatic music)
Oh, look at that door.
It's so dark I can't see that boat badge.
A really cool door.
All right, see you later buddy.
Have fun over there.
That is a moving door.
Oh my gosh.
- What?
- This is it Lincoln.
- [Lincoln] Wow.
- Right now we are near the penstocks.
They call them a penstock is the pipe,
30 foot in diameter, that all the water goes
through those four towers, is fed into that,
comes down, and then is fed into the turbines
and then it spits back out on the other side.
So pretty much every bit of the Colorado River
is all just from these pipes right here.
This three inch diameter steel pin,
it's keeping those pipes together.
- It's hard to see how.
- How heavy do you think this thing is?
30 pounds maybe?
The Hoover Dam was completed in 1935,
but they worked on it from 1931 to 1935.
And it took buckets and buckets of concrete
that they had to keep pouring in there.
Surprisingly, nobody was buried in the concrete.
One of the reasons why this spot was ideal,
was because the walls are all rock.
And so they were able to blast out and make
these diversion tunnels.
It's a lot of work.
If this area started to flood, the water pressure
would push up against it so much that it wouldn't,
come open.
Good-bye water pipe.
If the water wasn't flowing through the generators
right now, and they needed to have the water go out,
they would open up these valves right here
and this, on the other side of this wall,
is where the water would be shooting out of these pipes
right here.
- Oh, that's where we are.
That's cool.
- [Dan] Yeah.
(light music)
I can't believe we're down here right now.
- Dad, that's a pretty cool shot.
Wow!
- [Dan] Oh my gosh.
Lincoln, all of this water that you're seeing right now
go through the two penstocks.
The one on that side and the one that we just barely saw.
All this water.
- This is crazy.
- Okay, we're going for this tunnel.
Up above me is the air that feeds the penstock tunnel
where those pipes are.
Wow, we're droppin' fast.
- Yeah, very very fast.
- We were on the top a few minutes ago,
now we're at the bottom.
(light music)
Confined space do not enter, permit required.
- I touched the button.
- [Fish] He touched the button.
- I touched the button.
I'm touching it.
There you go guys.
There's the penstock, the bottom of it.
Hoo, we're down here guys, we brought you.
(light music)
We're on top of it.
The giant pipe that is full of water.
Where are we going now Lincoln?
- I have no clue.
- We're just walking in a place that not many people
have ever been.
We're just walking through these tunnels.
- Whoa.
What's in there?
- You don't want to know what's in there.
That's where Batman lives.
Look at that, there's like a rail track,
so that if they need to haul heavy things in here
they could.
Underneath the Hoover Dam.
- Look at that bat.
- Oh there's a bat, I told you it was Batman's cave.
Did I not just say that?
There was a bat.
Oh here it comes.
Confirmed, this is Batman's headquarters.
- Oh here comes another one.
- Yep, there he goes.
We're in this little tiny hallway here.
What do you see Lincoln?
Okay, this is a ladder that goes to the bottom
of the world.
We're walking to the end of this tunnel.
This is the last place that we're going to.
Check this out.
- Oh wow!
We're in one of those little ventilation things.
- We're in the ventilation in the side of the dam.
Guys, look at this.
Look down below.
We're actually in it right now.
This is the vent.
What's inside Hoover Dam?
We literally are right now.
We're in here!
(light music)
Oh, that was cool.
(laughing)
- That was not a good plan.
- Good job at spitting in your own face.
That's my son.
(laughing)
Okay, that's what this video's come to.
So that's everything that you need to see
inside of the Hoover Dam.
This was a really special tour.
- It was so awesome.
- If you haven't seen our other two videos
that we've done with the Department of the Interior,
this is our quest to go and see the National Parks
and the different things that are public lands guys.
These are, if you live in the United States,
if you want to see this, this is your land.
Go on a tour.
Go visit these places and let us know in the comments below
what National Parks that you visited.
Which monuments have you visited.
Let us know where else should be go.
What else should we see inside of.
This is a great adventure.
Thank you.
- I think I've read about these statues once.
If you rub the toes they give you good luck.
Cause that's why they're all shiny.
- [Dan] Like Neverending Story statue?
There's the toes.
Rub, there's soft and smooth.
Rub it, rub the big toes.
Do it Lincoln.
The pinky, oh that's even better luck.
Yeah, nice.
Oh.