We had a great time in Vegas, but were ready to move on. It's not far to Hoover Dam, and we had heard that vehicles were searched, particularly RV's, taking a lot of time, so we left the RV in Boulder City and jeeped to the dam and the new bridge. Hoover Dam was built in the 1930's and was a monumental feat for then, and would be today. The remote location require building of roads and railroads to the site, as well as housing and amenities for the work force. It took just over 4 years to build and was completed two years ahead of schedule and well under budget. (where is that contractor today??) Two years were spent digging diversion tunnels to reroute the flow of the Colorado River so that work on the dam could begin. It's hard to conceive these statistics: 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete, height of the dam, 726 feet, thickness at the base, 660 feet. This dam provides electricity for Nevada, Arizona, and California, sales of this power has paid for the dam. There are generators powered by turbines driven by water passing through pipes in the dam. Here are some of the generators. These towers are the intake for the water going to the turbines. This is a sculpture of a 'high scaler' who dangled over the side of the canyon wall to drill holes for dynamite to blast off loose rock. A very dangerous occupation. On either side of the dam are spillways in case of serious flooding. This has only happened twice since the dam was built. An observation and exhibit building. The towers in the background are tilted so the wires coming down would not be too close to the canyon wall. A model of how the concrete was poured in interlocking blocks. For most of the dam's life, Highway 93 passed over the dam. In the early days cars parked on the dam to take the tours. As the highway became more active with truck traffic, the dam crossing became a bottleneck. So a bypass bridge has been built to take the traffic off the bridge. It just opened in October of 2010, and it's construction was quite a feat in itself. Some fabulous pictures came around on the internet awhile back, which I no longer have, so here are a couple of links to other photos and interesting facts. A photo gallery. And a good news article. We walked to the center of the bridge and Mary Lou couldn't decide whether to be in Nevada or Arizona. These were massive engineering feats and make us proud of the accomplishment. Driving on, the highway engineering also made us proud. Map from Las Vegas to Kingman, Arizona. And finally, sunset at the Walmart in Kingman. Tomorrow, moving on to Flagstaff, and Sedona, Arizona. Stay tuned.
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Who Are We?
Chuck and Mary Lou have been traveling in their RV since 2002 and have lately been taking longer, extended trips. This is our way to share our experiences. Trip Reports
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