1930s Hoover Dam Construction Pics I've Never Seen Before

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imp

Senior Member
My wife came across a site having a good Hoover construction present. I picked the more important pics, cropped, adjusted image, etc., hope they show up well, the photos are over 80 years old! I may split this in two threads, if OK. There are about 12 pics.


The gorge chosen in which to build the dam. Note tiny trickle of Colorado R., likely taken in very low flow time of year, late Fall?






The foundation being built for the base of the dam.



Progress on pouring the dam, sculpting the shape of the "face", getting higher and higher. Note cofferdam upstream keeping water out of the work area. During this phase, the entire Colorado River flow, even at highest stage, is bypassed around the site by 50-foot diameter steel pipes!







Each of the rectangular bundles of vertical rod will be filled full of concrete, the spaces between allowing water flow through to the center of the tower, where the water "falls" several hundreds of feet, to turn the generator's turbines.



The Arizona side intake towers nearly completed. There are four total, two others on the Nevada side. The back of the dam is the big wall on the right. Will continue next thread. imp
 

Here is the nearly completed structure.


An aerial view of the backside, upstream side, of the dam, during it's near completion.




The completed job, discharging water through both sides overflow mechanism. By design, NO WATER could ever overtop the dam. It took about 10 years of annual mountain runoff of water, to bring Lake Mead to capacity. It's depth at the deepest point is over 500 feet. Last few years, the continuing shortfall of normal mountain runoff of snowmelt along with unprecedented population growth of the Desert Southwest, has reduced the level of Lake Mead to an historical low, as it was while initially filling during the 1940s. No one knew then, what is known now: demand for water may outstrip supply. The longer presentation is here: http://mashable.com/2015/09/11/hoover-dam-construction/#HdUNMdBSikkp

Thank you for looking. I have taken the dam tour at least 20 times in the past 50 years, and never cease to marvel at this achievement. If you have never been to Hoover Dam, or have, but missed the tour, I cannot state how fulfilling the experience is. When completed, about 1935, Hoover Dam was the largest man-made object on the face of the Earth!
 
Very interesting photos, Imp, quite a massive project! I have a glass, Hoover Dam ashtray. Here is a picture. Some believe that all hell will break loose, when this dam fails and is destroyed, in a few days, on 9/23 or 24.

IMG_1572.jpg
 

Meanderer said:
Very interesting photos, Imp, quite a massive project! I have a glass, Hoover Dam ashtray. Here is a picture. Some believe that all hell will break loose, when this dam fails and is destroyed, in a few days, on 9/23 or 24.

View attachment 21679
Click to expand...

A really neat-looking scene there! Also, first I've heard of a cataclysmic failure. At the rate the lake level is being drawn down, the old river bed could probably flush the lake away with only a few thousand downstream buildings destroyed! If the lake were full, I've always tried to picture a 500 foot high wall of water trying to collapse down! imp
 
In 1935, My Dad took us west on a vacation. On the way to California we stopped @ the dam site and saw the dam
just shortly after it was completed. Quite an undertaking and I'll always remember it. Thanks Dad.
 
Meanderer said:
Imp, here is a link for the Hoover Dam live aerial view in the Black Canyon:


This live birds eye view is overlooking the Hoover Dam. Hoover Dam, also sometimes known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada http://www.camvista.com/webdir/Las-...6&google_lat=36.015415&google_lng=-114.738926
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Utterly incredible! Even shows the new bypass bridge! I wonder how this was done with no vehicles present on the bridge? The very tortuous road down to the dam on the NV side I remember very well! Thank you so much! imp
 
Falcon said:
In 1935, My Dad took us west on a vacation. On the way to California we stopped @ the dam site and saw the dam
just shortly after it was completed. Quite an undertaking and I'll always remember it. Thanks Dad.
Click to expand...

Such a trip then was a feat in itself! Where did your trip originate, since you said "west"? imp
 
Who is buried in the Hoover Dam?

http://io9.com/5893183/who-is-buried-in-the-hoover-dam

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Re: The Link Above

This is a wonderful story! Enjoyed it. However, must dispute this claim:

"A human body is less structurally sound than the same volume of concrete. And if the body experienced any sort of decay, an air pocket could form around the body, further decreasing the stability of the weak point. Both situations would lead to a considerable six foot long, two foot wide weak spot in the dam, and a major problem when trying to hold back millions of gallons of water."

When considering the great extent of inspection galleries and access hallways, or tunnels, which exist within the structure itself, a mere "bubble" of human size would be, I think, totally immaterial.

While taking the tour of the dam, participants walk through these tunnels, for distances of hundreds of feet. They are completely dry, tiled roof, walls, and floor with ceramic tile, and kept as clean as a hospital hallway. imp
 
imp said:
This is a wonderful story! Enjoyed it. However, must dispute this claim:

"A human body is less structurally sound than the same volume of concrete. And if the body experienced any sort of decay, an air pocket could form around the body, further decreasing the stability of the weak point. Both situations would lead to a considerable six foot long, two foot wide weak spot in the dam, and a major problem when trying to hold back millions of gallons of water."

When considering the great extent of inspection galleries and access hallways, or tunnels, which exist within the structure itself, a mere "bubble" of human size would be, I think, totally immaterial.

While taking the tour of the dam, participants walk through these tunnels, for distances of hundreds of feet. They are completely dry, tiled roof, walls, and floor with ceramic tile, and kept as clean as a hospital hallway. imp
Click to expand...

I agree, Imp, but to an engineer....a flaw, is a flaw, is a flaw!
 
Rad, it's an enormous chasm, very imposing indeed. To have actually been there as work progressed, would have presented truly frightening sights, due to the enormity of it. Easy to understand such a view as being frightening. The first time I saw Hoover, was during my honeymoon trip in 1965. We walked across the dam, looked down over it's upstream side, the water there being 500 feet deep, then across the roadway to the sloped downstream side, and my first look all but took my breath away, so immense and overcoming it was! imp
 
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