Hoover Dam
An engineering wonder, the Hoover Dam is an amazing place to visit. As you stand on this gigantic structure, it’s hard to imagine how something this huge was built—much less how it was built in the 1930’s without all the modern technology and equipment we have today. I really enjoyed learning the history and seeing the inside of this impressive place. Apparently, many other people do too, as Hoover Dam is the most visited dam in the world with millions of visitors annually.
I wanted to see as much of the dam as we could, so we chose the extended tour which lasts one hour and allows access to additional areas of the dam. Also included are the self-guided visitor center with historical pictures and displays and an observation deck. You can only get the extended tour tickets in person and they cost $30 each. Expect lots of dam jokes….”Who’s here for the dam tour?”
One of the first stops on the tour is the penstock water pipes. You can feel the vibration of thousands of gallons of water going through the large pipe underneath the platform. Then we headed to the power plant area and saw the large turbines. The arch-type dam is only 45 feet thick at the top, but is 650 feet thick at the bottom where the turbines are–that’s as much as two football fields measured end to end!
We also traveled through inspection tunnels in the center of the dam and viewed the Colorado River through a ventilation shaft. If you look closely, you can see the vents along the face of the dam.
Fun Facts:
Hoover Dam is 1,244 feet long and 726.4 feet high, which was the world’s tallest dam when it was built in the 1930’s. Now it is the 2nd tallest dam in the US.
There is enough concrete in Hoover Dam (4.5 million cubic yards) to build a 2-lane road from Seattle to Miami or a 4-foot wide sidewalk around the Equator.
During peak electricity periods, enough water runs through the generators to fill 15 average sized swimming pools (20,000 gallons each) in 1 second.
Hoover Dam’s reservoir, Lake Mead, is America’s largest man-made reservoir. It can store 9.2 trillion gallons of water, or nearly 2 years of the river’s average annual flow.
Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge
A great spot to get an awesome overview of the entire dam area is the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. This 1900 foot long, twin-rib concrete arch bridge is the largest of its kind in North America and was built for security after 9/11 and to alleviate traffic over the Hoover Dam. There is a free parking area and inclined walkway up to the bridge, as well as a thick divider to separate pedestrians from traffic. They purposely made the wall high enough to prevent drivers from being distracted trying to look over at the dam–a good idea because it’s a long way down!
The Hoover Dam was built for flood control and to manage the Colorado River. Today it helps to irrigate some of America’s richest crop lands, provides the domestic water needs of more than 20 million people in the southwest US, and generates low-cost hydroelectric power for use in Nevada, Arizona, and California. Amazingly, the dam is self-supporting: the original $165 million loan has been repaid with interest, and the daily operation and maintenance costs are supported solely by revenues from power sales.
More Lake Mead area adventures to come!
Love reading about this. We visited there more than 20 years ago and still remember how hard it was to take it all in, it’s just so big and amazing.
Thanks, Mom. I feel the same and we still haven’t finished exploring it all after 2 months!
Great info! I’ve lived in Vegas my whole life and have yet to do the Hoover Dam tour. You’ve inspired me to check it out! Will be following your future travels as well!
Hey Somer–thanks for checking out my blog! The Hoover Dam tour was definitely worth checking out–I love to see how things work and tours are so informative. We lived in Las Vegas for 2 years back in the early 90’s and never heard of any of the things we got to do on this latest trip. There really is so much to do in your area and we loved all of the natural beauty of the desert!
Thank you for sharing. I drove from Georgia to Las Vegas when in July/August about 15 years ago with my mom and two young children. Our stop at Hoover Dam was one of my favorite experiences and one that was most memorable. I will always remember exploring the Dam or the fact that when I went up to the highest point allowed, the sun burned my lips. It took weeks to heal, Imagine me, a new principal at a new school showing up with very, very sunburned lips and trying to get the year started with my new staff and new teachers. You brought back memories and gave me the backstory that I never knew. Thanks!
Thanks for checking out my post, Jean. I am so happy that you have great memories of your Hoover Dam visit–it is truly an amazing place!