The Film & More
Program Description
It has been compared to the Acropolis of Ancient Greece and the Coliseum of
Imperial Rome. Rising 726 feet above the raging waters of the Colorado River,
it was called by the man whose name it bears "the greatest engineering work of
its character ever attempted by the hand of man." In fact, Hoover Dam reflected
the engineering genius and design philosophy of the time. And, in the midst of
the Great Depression, it was a symbol of hope for the dispossessed.
Winding through California's richly fertile Imperial Valley, the Colorado River
was wildly unpredictable--flooding in the spring, drying up in the summer. The
only way to harness this indispensable resource was to build a dam, which in
turn would provide badly needed electricity to the western states. It was a
brilliantly conceived scheme, uniting public works and private enterprise. A
giant construction company was formed by six previously smalltime contractors.
The engineering problems were stupendous, the solutions ingenious. Before work
could start, the river had to be diverted. Four tunnels, each 50 feet in
diameter (which today could accommodate a 747 without the wings), were drilled
through the solid rock walls of the Black Canyon. Men called "high-scalers,"
lowered in bosun's chairs, stripped the canyon walls of loose rock.
For two years, workers poured concrete 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Working conditions were dangerous, pay was low, housing inadequate. But it was
the Depression, and many were grateful to have work. Five thousand men and
their families settled in the Nevada desert. There were two mess halls, each
seating 600; the dishwasher was sixteen feet long.
The federal government built Boulder City, an efficiently run, well-ordered
company town, but dozens of tent cities sprang up--honky-tonk towns dotted the
road from the dam to the small town of Las Vegas.
In 1935, in only three years, the job was finished. But Hoover Dam also raised
policy questions about the economic and environmental impact of large scale
irrigation throughout the West.
Temporarily renamed Boulder Dam by the Roosevelt Administration, the project's
electrical output helped build the ships and planes used in World War II; its
water grew fruits and vegetables in California. It tamed a wild river and, for
a time, renewed faith in American ingenuity and technology.
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