An Essay On The Hoover Dam

756 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The hoover dam engineering success

The Hoover Dam
The Hoover Dam is one of the biggest dams and power plants in the world. It was built during the Great depression and continues to be a source of energy for the area. Between 1930 and 1936, thousands of people worked on the dam and ninety-six workers died from accidents directly relating to the building of the dam. It was the first human-made structure to exceed the masonry mass to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Hoover Dam is located on the border between Nevada and Arizona. The dam uses the Colorado River to run the huge turbines that generate power. It is located not far from the Grand Canyon. It is hard to believe that the dam was built in the 1930s considering there wasn’t the technology or tools that we have now.
Initially, the government wanted to build the dam in order to supply electrical power to California. In 1921, Herbert Hoover who was the Secretary of Commerce at time first proposed building a dam on the Colorado River. In 1928, Congress then authorized the dam to be built. In the 1930’s there were not many jobs due to the Depression and most people didn’t have a lot of money. The government figured building the dam would bring people out to that area of the country by giving them jobs. In order to get people to work on the dam the government posted letters throughout the country advertising jobs to work on the dam. Because jobs were hard to find people came from all over the country to work on the dam. With people working and getting paid a good salary the area became populated and people were able to buy things which helped the economy and the country.
Before the damn could be built the Colorado River had to be diverted through tunnels, so when construction started in 1931, a bunch ...

... middle of paper ...

...ing of the Hoover dam helped bring people, power and money to the area which helped areas such as Las Vegas, Nevada to develop. It continues to bring power, people and money to the region.

Bibliography
1. Water:Science and Issues | 2003 | Atkins, William Arthur | Copyright

2. Hoover Dam: An Engineering Wonder of the World. .

3. Hoover Dam—National Historic Landmark. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of the Interior. .

4. Simonds, William Joe. "The Boulder Canyon Project: Hoover Dam." Bureau of Reclamation History Program. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of the Interior. .

5. Dictionary of American History | 2003 | Copyright

6. The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2013 | Copyright

7. World Encyclopedia | 2005 | Copyright

Show More
Related

  • Water in the San Joaquin Valley

    2901 Words  | 6 Pages

    The primary purpose of Friend dam is to help regulate the flow of San Joaquin into available uses of its environmental, wildlife, and farmer’s impacts. The dam controls the flow of water delivery where it needs authorization first before the schedule can release any delivery waters into canals, steam, and wild life habitats. There will be agreements and many protocols to do with it first to avoid unnecessary spilling. There are 5 release schedules which include quantity of water available, time water, flood control requirements, release schedules from storage reservoir above Millerton Lake, and water user requirements. These benefits of flood control, storage management, modification into Madera and Friant-Kern Canals, to stop salty water from abolishing thousands of lands in Sacramento and throughout San Joaquin Delta, as well as deliver masses of water into agricultural lands in 5other counties in the San Joaquin Valley.

    Read More

  • Construction and History of the Marshall Ford Dam

    1409 Words  | 3 Pages

    In December 1936 the United States Department of the Interior authorized the Lower Colorado River Authority to construct a low dam at the site of an old crossing on the river known as Marshall Ford. Marshall Ford Dam was completed in 1941 through the collaboration of the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) and the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) of Texas. The original purpose of the dam was to prevent floods from devastating Austin, TX. The capital city had substandard heavy damage from previous floods since its establishment in 1846. Soon bureaucrats came together to create the Colorado River Project, wanting to create a series of dams along the Colorado River to create hydroelectric power and serve to control floods and droughts. With Buchanan dam well under way with a total of six planned Marshall Ford was the only dam designed primarily for flood control and the only dam in which USBR oversaw construction. With money scarce there was debate over the final height dam and it reservoir capacity. This issue resolves itself with the flood of 1938. Once completed Marshall Ford Dam would flood 65 miles of the Colorado to form Lake Travis, creating the largest of the seven reservoirs known as the Highland Lakes.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Hoover Glen Canyon And The 3 Gorges

    767 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hoover, Glen Canyon, and the Three Gorges. What do these three things have in common? They are all man-made dams. Throughout the world, man-made dams affect the three pillars of sustainability. A legend of controversy surrounding these dams has created a unique background story, as well as shown the positives and negatives of these man-made wonders.

    Read More

  • How Did The Hoover Dam Affect The Three Gorges Dam

    367 Words  | 1 Pages

    The one feature common to the Hoover Dam, The Mississippi river and the three gorges dam is that they all tried to control nature’s swings, specifically in the form of flooding. Before the Hoover dam was built, the Colorado river “used to flood spectacularly…but after 1900 the Colorado provoked a vehement response” (Pg 177). The response was simple, but large. The U.S. built several large dams, including the Hoover dam, on the Colorado to decrease its flooding and increase power and irrigation. Unfortunately, just as human control of the Colorado’s flooding increased, its organisms and habitats were detrimentally influenced, and the water became more and more salinated.

    Read More

  • It's Time to Drain Lake Powell

    863 Words  | 2 Pages

    The negative aspects of Glen Canyon Dam greatly exceed the positive aspects. The dam’s hydroelectric power supply is only three percent of the total power used by the six states that are served by the facility. There is a surplus of power on the Colorado Plateau and with more and more power-plants being created in the western hemisphere, Glen Canyon Dam’s power is not needed (Living Rivers: What about the hydroelectric loss). Although the ‘lake’ contains twenty seven million acre feet of water, one and a half million acre feet of water are lost yearly due to evaporation and seepage into the sandstone banks surrounding the ‘lake’ (Living Rivers: What about the water supply?). The loss of that much “water represents millions, even billions of dollars” (Farmer 183). If the government were to employ more water efficient irrigation practices, as much as five million acre feet of water per year could be saved.

    Read More

  • Hooverville Dbq

    683 Words  | 2 Pages

    In America the Great Depression hit hard especially in the 1930’s. People lost their jobs and then their homes. When the depression hit everyone blamed President Hoover for all of the homelessness. Hoovervilles are an important part of history; some important things about hoovervilles are how they started and who it involved.

    Read More

  • Colorado's Economic Success

    722 Words  | 2 Pages

    Manufacturing companies and jobs started to move and build their way up in Colorado. This opened even more opportunity for Colorado to grow. While people were moving to and visit...

    Read More

  • Andrew Isenberg's Mining In Californi An Ecological History?

    568 Words  | 2 Pages

    Isenberg explains that three actions took place to help build and stabilize the California economy during the time period, hydraulic mining, city building in Sacramento, and logging of the redwood forests. The hydraulic mining promotes more machinery-based mining. This technology helped increase effectiveness of mining and allowed ...

    Read More

  • St. Francis Dam Case Study

    287 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the 1898 mayoral election, Frederick Eaton was elected as mayor of Los Angeles; and appointed his associate, William Mulholland- the superintendent of the newly created Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Eaton and Mulholland envisioned a region of Los Angeles that would make Los Angeles become the turn of the century. The limiting factor of that regions growth was water supply. Eaton and Mulholland realized that the Owens Valley had a large amount of runoff from the Sierra Nevada, and a gravity-fed aqueduct that could deliver the Owens water to Los Angeles. During the early 1900’s the United States Bureau of Reclamation made plans to build an irrigation system to help the farmers of the Owens Valley. By 1905, through purchases, and alleged intimidation and bribery, Los Angeles purchased enough water rights to enable construction of the aqueduct.

    Read More

  • The Transformation of 1850s California: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

    1136 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...gration in population, help the California economy by building many businesses and caused violent conflicts between diverse groups of people. The Gold Rush in 1851 changed California.

    Read More

  • Transcontinental Railroad Essay

    1297 Words  | 3 Pages

    Despite being built during the Civil War, funding was not a problem and every single one of the 2,000 miles of track was hand laid; going through mountains as well as terrain. Both companies finally met up at their midpoint completing the construction on May 10th, 1869; about four years after the end of the Civil War and six years after construction

    Read More

  • Johnstown Flood

    1184 Words  | 3 Pages

    The state offered to sell the canal, the railroad company bought it for the right of ways yet had no need to maintain the dam, which due to neglect, broke for the first time in 1862. McCullough stresses that man was responsible for the dam and its weaknesses nearly thirty years before the great flood as he explains how the initial repair work was carried out by unqualified people and how the discharge pipes were blocked up.... ... middle of paper ... ... McCullough makes a firm argument for the responsibility of man, and asserts the blame on the necessary people, therefore I feel he makes a fair and accurate assertion which I would agree with.

    Read More

  • The Effect of the Transcontinental Railroad

    868 Words  | 2 Pages

    The idea came to life in 1845 when a woman by the name of Asa Whitney presented to congress a written plan that she hoped would be handed over to the federal government. Her goal was for the federal government to consider a plan that would include the building of a railroad that began near the Mississippi River and ended near the Pacific Ocean. At first look, funds were far too low, and a plan would need to come into place to collect funding. The federal government began receiving funds from the Oregon Boundary Dispute which was concluded in 1846, the discovery of gold in California in 1849, and a collection of western territories. In the Year 1853, the congress approved the idea with a collection of funds. They began to survey different possible routes.

    Read More

  • Impact of California's Gold Rush on 1800s America

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to the article “Gold Rushes and Silver Strikes,” the Gold Rush changed the landscape in California and the population started to increase each year. Basically more people wanted to become wealthy and their settlement in California changed the landscape and population increased because more and more people began immigrating. According to the article “California Gold Rush (1848-1858),” it changed California democratically and it became one of the most ethnically diverse states. Also, taxes were proposed so people would stop mining. As stated before, California became one of the most diverse because of migration. California proposed the a tax on mining because too many people were immigrating there. According to the article “The Gold Rush of 1849,” independence into wage labor, produced new mining techniques. An example of a new technique is hydraulic mining which brought enormous profits, however, it destroyed regional

    Read More

  • Differences Between The 1920s And 1930s

    812 Words  | 2 Pages

    The thirties was a time of anxiety -- after the major stock market crash of 1929, the Great Depression was sparked. The economy is in the dumps, crime rate increased, mass migrations occurred, and much more. This despair inducing time caused a majority of the American people to be poor, or if they were rich before the incident, they would at least have a much less amount of money than they had before. Many people were looking for jobs, but the country did not have any jobs to offer them. Then soon enough, the president at the time, Herbert Hoover, issued the creation of the Hoover Dam, which had opened up a large amount of jobs for the people. Sure, the job was extremely dangerous -- hundreds died in the creation of the large dam -- but the people needed money. They would’ve done almost anything in the economic grave that they dug themselves in at this point. They originally hired mostly Chinese immigrants to build the dam, but soon enough, more people in need of money were up for the job. They also started using concrete for the Hoover Dam, which has stuck until today’s time, in which most buildings are made up of concrete. Concrete is so relied on today due to its toughness and durability. The Hoover Dam popularized the use of concrete in building.

    Read More

More about An Essay On The Hoover Dam

Open Document