March 27, 2019 Hoover Dam

Day 2 Oasis RV Resort Las Vegas, Nevada

First thing this morning we made the decision to stay in Las Vegas through April 5th. This will give Tim a break from driving for a little while. We will also be in town next week for the service on the Jeep. I headed to the office to extend our stay.

We packed a picnic lunch and drove to the Hoover Dam.

Usually we tend to avoid touristy places. They are usually overpriced and crowded. This was both, but it was also well worth it! After working in the construction industry for more than 40 years, Tim could really appreciate the magnitude and complexity of this project.

The first viewing area is at the O’Callaghan-Tillman Memorial Bridge. This bridge spans the Black Canyon from Nevada to Arizona, over the Colorado River, parallel to the dam. The road used to pass directly over the dam but the traffic was awful. Millions of people visit the area every year and sometimes the wait to cross the bridge would exceed 2 hours. The bridge was completed in 2010. It is a wonderful tribute to 2 heroes.

Tim has long admired and respected Pat Tillman. This man could have had a lucrative NFL career but he elected to serve his country in the US Army. He was killed in 2004, while fighting in Afghanistan.

Mike O’Callaghan was an acclaimed war hero and a well-respected Nevada governor.

There is a moving inscription on the Nevada side of the bridge. It reads:

“May all who cross the canyon on this memorial bridge travel their life journeys with the strength and inspiration fund in the high ideals and heroic deeds of these brave humble men.”[

We drove to the Hoover Dam Visitor Center. The dam was constructed in 5 years and was completed in 1935. The dam tamed the Colorado River. Before the dam, in the spring the river was full and raging and by the end of the summer it ran as a mere trickle. The people trying to survive along the river’s course underwent cycles of flooding and drought. At the lower end of the river, there was an accumulation of rich, silty soil. It was fertile ground for farming but the unpredictability of the weather and the severe summers, made growing things nearly impossible. The dam reallocated the water of the river. Lake Meade is a 110-mile reservoir. It can hold a 2-year supply of water. The water from the river flows through the hydroelectric dam and supplies electric power to most of the southwestern United States.
It is impressive that this one project can generate that kind of power and hold that amount of water at the same time. It is truly and engineering marvel and the single most effective and influential man-made improvement in the part of the United States.

There are 2 tremendous spillways, one on either side of the dam. The spillways are meant to reroute water, should the reservoir ever overflow. The last time the spillway was necessary was in 1983.