Ngaruawahia High School Yearbooks 2010-2012 Kapa Haka Tour of Western USA 1998 | Page 128

Page 126 - Ngaruawahia High School Kapa Haka USA Tour 1998

A photographic
montage of the
tail race at the
base of Hoover
Dam.

Hoover Dam, one of the major dams of the world, on
the Colorado River, at the Nevada-Arizona state line, 25
miles east of Las Vegas. Hoover Dam is the second
highest dam in the United States and is considered one of
the greatest engineering achievements in the world. The
massive dam is the chief flood control unit on the lower
Colorado River, and it also provides power and water for
a large area of the western United States. Hydroelectric
power generated at the damsite is used throughout
Nevada, Arizona, and southern California and is carried
as far away as the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The
dam's immense reservoir, Lake Mead, irrigates more than
one million acres of semiarid land in the Southwest. The
dam itself, a gravity arch dam, has a height of 726 feet
and a crest length of 1,244 feet. It is over 660 feet thick
at the base.
Construction of the Dam. The dam was authorized by
Congress in 1928. It was planned as the major structure
in the Boulder Canyon project, which also included a
reservoir and power plant. A damsite in Boulder Canyon,

several miles upstream from the present location, was
first chosen. The site was later moved to the head of
Black Canyon, a narrow, steep-sided gorge.
Work was begun at the dam site in 1931. To supply
power for construction, a 200-mile-long power line was
strung to the site from San Bernardino, Calif. Railroad
and highway facilities were built, and 7 miles southwest
of the damsite, Boulder City was laid out to serve as
construction headquarters. It was later made a local
headquarters of the Bureau of Reclamation, which
operates the dam.
Six private engineering companies worked on the
dam from 1931 to 1936. The mammoth Boulder Canyon
project was completed at a total estimated cost of
$173,100,000. The dam was dedicated in 1935. During
the early years of construction it was known as Hoover
Dam, in honour of President Herbert Hoover, It was later
officially called Boulder Dam, but in 1947 it was renamed
Hoover Dam.