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VOICE ONE:
This is Bob Doughty.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember withEXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Hoover Dam.It was the largest and most difficult structure of its kind everbuilt when work started in nineteen-thirty-one.
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VOICE ONE:
Our report today about Hoover Dam must begin with the ColoradoRiver. This river made the dam necessary. The Colorado River beginshigh in the Rocky Mountains. It begins slowly, during the darkmonths of winter. Heavy snow falls on the Rocky Mountains.
The snow is so deep in some areas that it will stay on the groundwell into the hot days of summer. But the snow does melt. Ice coldwater travels down the mountains and forms several rivers — theGila River, the Green River, the Little Colorado, the San Juan, theVirgin and the Gunnison Rivers. These rivers link together and formthe beginnings of the Colorado River. The Colorado River flowsthrough or provides water for the states of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah,New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California. Then it crosses theborder into Mexico.
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The Colorado River has always been extremely powerful. The rivercreated the huge Grand Canyon. The violent water cut hundreds ofmeters deep into the desert floor of Arizona. The Grand Canyon isproof of the power of this great river.
The Grand Canyon was cut into the desert floor beginningthousands of years ago. But the power of this river has beendemonstrated in more modern times.
Between nineteen-oh-five and nineteen-oh-seven, the ColoradoRiver caused great amounts of flooding in parts of Arizona andCalifornia. Huge amounts of water ran into a low area in the dry,waterless desert that had once been an ancient lake. In two years offlooding, the Colorado River filled the ancient lake. That lake iscalled the Salton Sea. Today, it is about fifty-six kilometers longby twenty-five kilometers wide. It is even larger in years of heavyrain.
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The flooding that created the Salton Sea also flooded homes,towns and farming areas. Many people were forced to flee theirhomes. Government leaders knew they had to do something to preventsuch floods in the future. In nineteen-eighteen, a man named ArthurDavis proposed building a dam to control the Colorado River. MisterDavis was a government engineer. He said the dam should be built inan area called Boulder Canyon on the border between the states ofArizona and Nevada.
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Building the dam would not be a simple matter. The people ofseven states and the people of Mexico needed and used the water ofthe Colorado River. Much of that area is desert land. Water isextremely important. Without water from the Colorado River, farmingis not possible. Without water, life in the desert is not possible.
On November twenty-fourth, nineteen-twenty-two, officials signeda document in Santa Fe, New Mexico. That document is called theColorado River Compact. The document tells how the seven stateswould share the water of the Colorado River. It was agreed thiscould be more easily done with the aid of a dam. Later an agreementwas signed with Mexico to supply it with water from the ColoradoRiver.
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The area chosen for the dam was called Black Canyon. The walls ofBlack Canyon rise almost two-hundred-forty-three meters above theriver. An ancient volcano formed the rock in Black Canyon. Engineersdecided the rock would provide a good strong support for theproposed dam.
However, the area also presented problems. The nearest railroadwas sixty kilometers away. There was no electric power. And, in thesummer, the temperature in the desert in Black Canyon could reach ashigh as forty-eight degrees Celsius.
A great deal of work was done before operations started on thedam. Workers built a town called Boulder City to house employeesworking on the dam. They built a large road from Boulder City to thearea of the dam. They built a railroad from a main line in LasVegas, Nevada to Boulder City. They built another railroad fromBoulder City to the dam area. And they built a three-hundred-fiftykilometer power line from San Bernadino, California. This providedelectric power to the area where the dam was being built.
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The work on the dam began in April of nineteen-thirty-one.Workers called “high scalers” were some of the first to beginbuilding the dam. They were suspended from ropes as they used heavyair-powered hammers to break any loose rock away from the face ofthe canyon walls. When they could not use hammers, they useddynamite. One high scaler became very famous. His name was ArnoldParks. He caught another worker who had fallen off the top of thecanyon.
Mister Parks held the worker to the wall of the canyon untilothers came to help. Today, visitors can see a statue of the men whoworked as high scalers to build Hoover Dam.
The high scalers worked on the sides of the canyon. Other workersdug huge tunnels deep in the floor of the canyon. This was done topermit the Colorado River to flow away from the construction area.This had to be done so the floor of the dam could be built.
On June sixth, nineteen-thirty-three, workers poured the firstload of a building material called concrete. Men in two specialfactories worked day and night to make the concrete buildingmaterial for the dam.
Huge equipment moved millions of tons of rock and sand. In thesummer months, the terrible desert heat slowed the work but did notstop it. Men who worked at night on the dam suffered less, but theheat was still as high as thirty degrees Celsius.
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Slowly the great dam began to risefrom the floor of the canyon. From the canyon floor it reachestwo-hundred-twenty-one meters high. Workers poured the last of theconcrete on May twenty-ninth, nineteen-thirty-five. They had usedalmost four-million cubic meters of concrete in the dam. Workersalso used more than twenty-million kilograms of steel to strengthenthe concrete in the dam.
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The work was dangerous for the more than five-thousand men whoworked on the structure. The extreme temperatures, falling objectsand heavy equipment caused accidents. The workers were provided withmedical care and two emergency vehicles to take them to a newhospital in Boulder City. However, ninety-six men lost their livesduring the building of the great dam.
The companies building the dam had been given seven years tocomplete the work. They did it in only five. The dam was finished onMarch first, nineteen-thirty-six.
Other work now began. This workwould make the dam into one of the largest producers of electricpower ever built. The dam was built to control the powerful ColoradoRiver. But it was also meant to use the river to produce largeamounts of electric power.
Today, seventeen huge machines use the river’s power to produceelectric power. The states of Arizona and Nevada share the power. Sodo many cities in California, including Los Angeles, Burbank, andPasadena.
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VOICE ONE:
When the Hoover Dam was finished in nineteen-thirty-six, it wasthe largest dam in the world. It was also the tallest. And it wasthe largest power producer that used water power to makeelectricity. Today this is no longer true. Taller dams, larger damsand a few that produce more power have been created. But Hoover Damis still a huge and interesting place.
Visitors to Hoover Dam drive on a small road that passes LakeMead. They enter a special visitor’s center to learn about the damand the men who built it. They ride high-speed elevators that godeep inside the dam. They see the huge machines that produceelectric power.
Many visitors say they thought the name of the huge structure wasBoulder Dam. They are told that Hoover Dam is often called BoulderDam. However, it is named after former President Herbert Hoover.
Before he was president, Mister Hoover worked for many years tomake the construction of the dam possible. It was officially namedto honor him in nineteen-forty-seven.
Visitors leave the great dam with an understanding of howdifficult the project was. They learn that it still safely controlsthe great Colorado River. And it also provides water and electricpower to millions of people in the American southwest.
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VOICE TWO:
This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced byMario Ritter. This is Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for anotherEXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English.