Hoover Dam

If you are looking for one of the best dam tours in the United States, look no farther than Hoover Dam, the engineering marvel that first tamed the rambunctious Colorado River. Here you can enjoy a 35-minute guided tour of the dam's interior and exterior. It is an amazing experience. Hoover Dam was the greatest dam constructed in its day. Dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 as Boulder Dam (and renamed for the former president in 1947), the great arch-gravity structure, soaring 726 feet above bedrock, is still the Western Hemisphere's highest concrete dam. It is 660 feet thick at its base, 45 feet thick at its crest and stretches 1,244 feet across Black Canyon from Nevada to Arizona. Lake Mead, its reservoir, stretching for 110 miles behind the dam, is capable of storing 28.5 million acre-feet of water; the equivalent to nearly two years of average Colorado River flow. Enough concrete was poured into this massive structure to build a twolane highway from New York to San Francisco. It is designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the country's Seven Modern Civil Engineering Wonders.

The general tour, conducted in groups ranging from 10 to 80 people, starts at the new visitor's center just downstream of the dam on the Nevada side of Black Canyon. Two high-speed, 45-passenger elevators carry tour groups down through the canyon wall to a tunnel that leads to the level overlooking the generators. The massive, seven-storyhigh generators seem to stretch for blocks. Each of these huge turbines required 60 railroad carloads of material and three years to manufacture. Spinning at 180 revolutions per minute, their combined electric output is a staggering 4 billion kilowatt-hours of energy annually. That is enough to service 500,000 homes. Each of the huge overhead cranes, which can be worked together to double their capacity, is capable of lifting 300 tons.

Moving on, the tour comes to an area where our group stood in a room over a huge penstock (waterpipe) that delivers an enormous amount of water to the turbines. Our guide informed us that this is the second largest waterpipe in the world. In as much as this penstock is three stories high, we believed him. The power of the rushing water was easily felt through our feet.

Although most of the corridors we walked through were black-and-white terrazzo in a 1930's style, we did pass through some tunnels cut through solid rock and left unfinished. The rock is so hard that it did not need reinforcement. In a few places water seeping through the rock gave some of us an uneasy feeling; however, our guide assured us that the water came from underground springs. The dam was not leaking.

We followed the guide outside at the dam's base where its great concrete face loomed above us. We were all aware that that wall of concrete is holding back a lake that is 110 miles long and up to 500 feet deep. It was a humbling experience. Looking southward, we watched the Colorado River continue its journey between the rugged walls of Black Canyon, another awesome sight.

As we strolled, our guide laid some interesting facts on us. The spillways on the Lake Mead side of the dam are 27 feet lower than the dam's crest. They can handle 200,000 cubic feet of water per second. That is the same amount of water that flows over Niagara Falls. However, this water drops three times father than Niagara's to reach the river below the dam. The spillways were only used twice; when tested in 1941 and in 1983 when floodwaters lasted for 66 days. The spillways are easily seen from both sides of the dam.

The four towers that you see fronting the dam are intakes. Each is 395 feet high and has two 11 x 32-foot gates, one at the bottom and the other halfway up. From these intakes the water flows through the penstocks to the generators.

Our guide mentioned that stories of men embedded in the dam's concrete are common, albeit untrue. What was embedded in the concrete were 1-inch steel waterpipes. As concrete cures it creates heat, and in Hoover Dam it would have taken 150 years to cool. Engineers constructed an ice plant capable of making a thousand tons of ice a day. Then ice water was pumped through the pipes to cool the concrete quickly

As you return topside, you have a better idea of just what an engineering feat was executed here. In 1985, the American Society of Civil Engineers designated the dam as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, and the U.S. Department of the Interior designated it as a National Historic Landmark. Taxpayers should designate it as a wonder. The total cost of its construction has been repaid and the present rates charged are, by law, set at a level that is sufficient only to operate and maintain the dam. No tax money is used for maintenance; it is all paid for by the 15 entities that contract for its power. More than 32 million visitors have toured the dam and powerplant since 1937.

Bureau of Reclamation guides conduct tours through Hoover Dam daily. The visitor's center is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. daily except Christmas, when it is closed. Fees are $6 for adults; $5 for seniors; $2 for children, 616; and age five and under, free. A "hard hat" tour, which takes people to places in the dam that are not accessed on the normal tour, is $25 per person and the tours run approximately every hour.

A few words of advice. Get there early, before the tour buses arrive. Wear good walking shoes and a light sweater The interior of the dam is cool regardless of the outside temperature. There is a fair amount of walking and two flights of 53 stairs along the route. Wheelchairs are available for the handicapped and special assistance is given to the hearing impaired.

Hoover Dam, operated by the Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior, is located about 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is easily reached via U.S. Highway 93. From the Arizona side, the dam is also reached via U.S. Highway 93 and is about 70 miles northwest of Kingman, Arizona.

Since the dam is located in a canyon, the approaches are on the steep side, but nothing an RV should not be able to handle. Free RV parking is available on the Arizona side of the dam. There is no shuttle bus; people parking on the Arizona side of the dam must walk about Smile back across the dam to the visitor's center

There are excellent campgrounds, public and private, located at Lake Mead's Boulder Beach, a short distance from the dam. Check the Trailer Life Campground/RV Park & Services Directory for listings.

Hoover Dam Vsitor's Center (702) 294-3524.

Copyright T L Enterprises, Inc. Apr 1997
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