Nevada
By : Kelsie Settles
The Hoover Dam
I was standing on the edge, looking down. A 1,244 foot drop. Only water. The Hoover Dam is a very deep, large dam. But it was not always called the Hoover Dam, once it was called the Boulder Dam. Its name changed in 1947. It it 1,244 feet deep and it is 726 feet long.
It is one of the largest man made structures in the world. Building it took over 5 million barrels of concrete. When it was done being built the hoover dam contained enought concrete to build a two-lanes highway from Seattle, Washington to Miami, Florida. That's 4.5 maillon cubic yards. It was built to to prevent and avoid flooding.
It is in the black canyon of the Colorado River. It is about 35 miles southeast from Las Vegas, Nevada. It is located on the border of Nevada and Arizona.It symbolizes the greatest dam build in the world. It is the highest concrete arch gravity dam in the world.
It took years took plan out. The construction actually began in 1931. It was finished and open to the public in 1936. It was built during the Great Depression.
They have a daily tour at 10:00 everyday except Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is $70 per person. It's a 3 1/2 to 4 hour tour.
It has hydroelectric power. It's one of the largest in the world. Each spillway can handle the volume of water that flows over Niagara Falls. The lake it holds back can hold the state if Connecticut, 10 feet deep. 21,000 people worked on it. Only 96 people died. It's base is as big as 2 football fields long-ways.
The archeologists were Henry J Kaiser and Gordan Kauffman. The architecture firm was Six Companies INC. It is a family friendly place. It costs 49 million dollars. If it were built in 2010 it would have cost 700 million dollars. It produces 4 billon kilowatts of electricity per year. That is enough to provide all the power needs for over 1 millon people.
It protects Southern California and Arizona from from the disastrous floods that the Colorado River has been famous for. It is named one of the top 10 construction achievement of the 20th century. When they were building it, they had to detour the Colorado river so it would be dry. It was dedicated by Franklin D Roosevelt in 1935.
Websites
1.)"Fat Alities at Hoover Dam." Us Dept If Interior Usdr.gov. 1 Apr. 2009. Web. 6 Dec. 2014.
2.)"Hoover Dam." Wikipedia.com. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
3.)"Hoover Dam." LasVegas.com. Web. 6 Dec. 2014.
4.)"Hoover Dam." History.com. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
5.)"Hoover Dam." Vegas.com. Accessed December 6, 2014.
6.)"Hoover Dam Tour." On Board Law Vegas Tours.com. Accessed December 6, 2014.
7.)Sexton, Tomothy. "Afars about Hoover Dam." Travel Tips Una Today.com. Accessed December 6, 2014.
8.)"The Greatest Dam on the World ; Building Hoover Dam." Nps.gov. January 30, 2011. Accessed December 8, 2014.