Hoover Dam via Archeyes
Completed in 1936, the Hoover Dam, located on the Nevada-Arizona border, is the second tallest dam in the United States and the 18th tallest in the world. The Hoover Dam was a far-reaching project of its time, setting new standards for future generations of engineering feasibility studies, structural analyses, quality control during construction, and post-completion operational assessments. Today, the Hoover Dam powers public and private facilities in Nevada, Arizona, and California.
The Hoover Dam is a concrete arched gravity dam that spans the Black Canyon of the Colorado River. It was built between 1931 and 1936 after the Great Depression and completed in 1935 by then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Since the unemployment was greatly increased during the Great Depression, a sizable number of cheap laborers was provided for the construction of the dam. Thousands of workers were painstakingly involved in the dam's construction, and in 1935, the dam was completed two years earlier, but more than 100 workers died in labor.
When the dam began construction in 1931, Republican Leader Hoover was on stage, and the dam was named after him. But Democrats are angry and unconvinced. Hoover stepped down and was renamed the Boulder Dam until 1933, when it was renamed the Hoover Dam in honor of President Herbert Hoover, who led the dam during his tenure.
Since 1990, officials have begun to study the feasibility of building dams in the Black Canyon and Boulder Canyon areas for flood control, irrigation, and hydropower. Upgrading power transmission technology has enabled the full potential of hydropower generation in the lower Colorado River.
In 1928 Congress passed a pre-project for the project, and the dam project was built by Six Companies. Inc won the bid and construction began in the spring of 1931.
Hoover Dam via Archeye
The Hoover Dam is 221 meters high and 379 meters long, and 3,360,000 cubic meters of concrete are used. Never before has there been such a huge concrete structure, and new technologies have been applied and validated in projects.
The scorching summer climate and the lack of engineering facilities still put the project to the test. Even so, Six Companies. Inc successfully delivered the dam to the government on March 1, 1936, more than two years ahead of schedule.
The special feature of the project is that the federal government provides all the building materials except concrete aggregates, so as not to delay the project due to the increase in the construction budget.
Architect Gordon M. Thompson, who once designed the Los Angeles Times Building, said that he would not be able to do so. Gordon V. Kaufmann simplified the design of the dam in the modernist and Art-Deco styles.
The four most obvious places in style include power piles, dam tops, spillways and 4 vents inserted into the top of the dam. The two vents in the middle are built with elevators and the façade is decorated with reliefs.
Hoover Dam via douban
The Hoover Dam is an unprecedented dam, once the world's largest dam, still a world-renowned building, has been designated a national historical attraction and a national civil engineering historical attraction, in 1994 by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the 7 modern engineering wonders in the United States, of which two other Art-Deco projects were selected at the same time, namely the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Hoover Dam © Archeyes
References：
1.https://archeyes.com/hoover-dam-in-arizona-nevada-border-gordon-kaufmann/
2.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Kaufmann
3.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PWA_Moderne
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