On this historic day, July 7, 1930, construction began on the Hoover Dam.
Over the next five years, more than 21,000 men would work tirelessly to produce what would become the largest dam of its time and one of the largest man-made structures in the world, according to History.com.
Ninety-six workers died during the construction of the dam between 1931 and 1936, according to a report by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
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In addition, more than 100 additional dam workers died while off the job, with causes including pneumonia, meningitis and typhoid fever, the source said.
The dam is located about 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas, where the Colorado River forms the border between Nevada and Arizona.
The 3.25 million cubic yard dam, which covers more than 220 acres, is constructed of small concrete squares of about 8 cubic feet, according to an article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The water intake towers of Hoover Dam at Lake Mead, the nation's largest man-made water reservoir, formed by the dam on the Colorado River in the southwestern United States, as seen in July 2022 near Boulder City, Nevada. The lake, a national recreation area, located within the states of Nevada and Arizona 24 miles east of the Las Vegas Strip, supplies water to the states of Arizona, California, Utah, Colorado and Nevada, as well as parts of Mexico. (George Rose/Getty Images)
The Hoover Dam is named after President Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States.
“When construction of the dam began, Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur ordered the dam to be built in the Black Canyon of the Colorado. [River] as part of the Boulder Canyon Project Act… to be renamed Hoover Dam,” according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Although the dam was supposed to take only five years to build, it took nearly 30 years to build.
By a law of Congress on February 14, 1931, this name was made official, according to the same site.
Although the dam was supposed to take only five years to build, it took nearly 30 years to build, several sources said.
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Arthur Powell Davis, an engineer with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, originally had a vision for the Hoover Dam in 1902. His engineering report on the subject became the guiding document when plans were finally made to begin the dam in 1922, according to History.com.
President Hoover, a committed conservationist, played a crucial role in making Davis' vision a reality; while he was Secretary of Commerce in 1921, President Hoover worked on the creation of a high dam in Boulder Canyon, the same source said.
Hoover Dam is one of the National Park Service's most popular tourist attractions. (Ashley Soriano/Fox News)
“In 1929, Hoover, now president, signed the Colorado River Compact into law, claiming it was “the most sweeping action ever taken by a group of states under the provisions of the Constitution allowing compacts between states,” History.com noted.
The Hoover Dam was created to provide hydroelectric power and irrigation water to residents of southern Nevada, northern Arizona, and southern California, including Los Angeles.
Today, this is true for literally millions of people, according to Travel Nevada.
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Despite President Hoover's support and endorsement of the need to build the dam, congressional approval and cooperation from individual states were slow to come, according to History.com.
Once preparations were made, construction of the Hoover Dam “proceeded at full speed.”
Water rights had been a bone of contention among the Western states that held claims to the Colorado River. To address this challenge, President Hoover negotiated the Colorado River Compact, which divided the river basin into two regions and divided the water between them, the source said.
A vehicle towing a personal watercraft drives past a sign welcoming visitors to Lake Mead National Recreation Area on July 1, 2022, in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada. Lake Mead's water level was at its lowest since it was filled in 1937 after the construction of the Hoover Dam. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
“Hoover then had to introduce and reintroduce the bill to build the dam several times over the next few years before the House and Senate finally passed the bill in 1928,” History.com reported.
Once the preparations were made, construction of the Hoover Dam “progressed at full speed,” with contractors finishing their work two years ahead of schedule and millions of dollars under budget, the source said.
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The Hoover Dam is the same height as a 60-story building and was the tallest dam in the world when it was completed in 1935, the National Park Service said.
“It remains the largest man-made lake in the United States. The amount of water in the lake, when full, could cover the entire state of Connecticut with a depth of 3 meters. Only a huge dam could withstand the pressure of so much water,” said the same source.
The Hoover Dam came to symbolize what American industry and American workers could do, even in the depths of the Great Depression.
For millions of people in the 1930s, including those who would never visit, the Hoover Dam came to symbolize what American industry and American workers could do, even in the depths of the Great Depression, the National Park Service noted.
In 1929, the stock market crashed, leaving America in a vortex of despair and poverty. That led to the Great Depression, in which one in four workers was unemployed, regardless of whether they were skilled or unskilled, Bartelby.com reported.
In addition to the Hoover Dam, major construction projects took place from coast to coast in the 1930s.
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The Triborough Bridge (the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge), the Lincoln Tunnel, and La Guardia Airport transformed New York City's transportation network, and the Big Apple's Empire State Building reigned as the world's tallest building from 1931 to 1973.
On the West Coast, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco was also built in the same decade.
“The Golden Gate Bridge was one of the spectacular construction projects of the 1930s that spurred the nation's economic recovery,” the Smithsonian said.
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More recently, construction began on a long-planned Hoover Dam bypass project in January 2005. And in October 2010, a 320-meter-long concrete arch bridge (the longest in North America for that type of bridge) opened to traffic overlooking the Hoover Dam, Britannica reported.
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The old road along the ridge is reserved for the use of dam visitors, the same source said.
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The Hoover Dam is a National Historic Landmark.
The American Society of Civil Engineers has named it one of the Seven Wonders of Modern American Civil Engineering, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
