Hoover Dam Argumentative Essay Example

and Senator Hiram Johnson - underwent numerous revisions and resubmissions. Eventually, both the House and Senate approved the bill, which was then signed into law on December 21st, 1928 by President Calvin Coolidge. This authorized the Boulder Canyon Project to proceed with construction under Herbert Hoover's leadership as President from July 1930 onwards.

The Boulder Canyon Project was initially designed to have the dam site located in Boulder Canyon. However, the project's name was retained even after relocating the dam site eight miles downstream to Black Canyon. Six Companies, Inc., a combined group comprising of Morrison-Knudsen Company from Boise, Idaho; Utah Construction Company from Ogden, Utah; Pacific Bridge Company from Portland, Oregon; and Henry J., was awarded the contract to construct the Boulder dam on March 11th, 1931.

The Hoover Dam was constructed by three companies: Kaiser & W. A. Bechtel Company in Oakland, California, MacDonald & Kahn Ltd. in Los Angeles, and the J. F. Shea Company in Portland, Oregon.

Both the Union Carbide Corporation and Six Companies, Inc. were involved with the dam project. While the former was contracted to help with the concrete curing, the latter was hired to build a town named Boulder City for the workers. However, due to the Great Depression, the dam's start date was moved up to create more jobs. As a result, the town was not ready when workers arrived, and they were assigned to a temporary camp, later dubbed Ragtown by the workers. Six Companies continued work on Boulder City during this time.

On August 8th, 1931, a strike was organized by workers who were dissatisfied with the camp and unsafe working conditions at the dam site. In

response, Six Companies dispatched a riot squad armed with weapons such as guns and clubs, quickly ending the riot. However, Six Companies recognized the need to expedite the construction of Boulder City due to the strike. By spring of 1932, workers had relocated from the camp sites to Boulder City. To ensure timely completion of the project, Boulder City prohibited gambling, drinking and prostitution during construction, making it the only location in Nevada where gambling is banned. Furthermore, Boulder City was not sold until 1969. Two coffer dams were constructed to prevent flooding at the dam site during construction.

In September 1932, the upper coffer dam was initiated despite the undiverted river. With the completion of the Arizona tunnels and diversion of the river, construction on the dam proceeded at a quicker pace. Following the installation of coffer dams and dewatering of the site, construction work on the dam foundation commenced, finishing in June 1933.

During the foundation excavation process, approximately 1,500,000 yards cubed of material were eliminated from the area. To redirect the river's flow around the work zone, four diversion tunnels were drilled through the canyon walls - two on the Nevada side and two on the Arizona side. The diameter of these tunnels measured 56 feet.

Their total length measured just over 15,000 feet, equivalent to slightly over three miles. The digging process commenced at the Nevada end of the gorge during May 1931, followed by the construction of two comparable tunnels in the Arizona wall. In March of 1932, efforts progressed towards cementing the tunnel interiors.

The Hoover Dam construction involved several unique procedures and techniques due to its unprecedented size. To create the

tunnel with a diameter of 50 ft, a 3 feet thick concrete lining was used. However, before the dam construction, it was crucial to remove loose rocks from the canyon walls. This risky task was accomplished by the high scalers who hung from ropes and used tools like dynamite and jackhammers to scale down canyon walls and remove rocks. On June 6th, 1933, the first concrete was laid in the dam. Given the unprecedented size of the Hoover Dam, workers had to devise new construction procedures and techniques for its successful completion.

Due to the fact that concrete experiences heat and contraction during curing, uneven cooling and contracting can create a major issue. Engineers from the Bureau of Reclamation came up with a solution to overcome this problem: constructing the dam using a single, uninterrupted pour. If this had not been done, stress would have caused the dam to fracture and deteriorate. However, this method would have required 125 years for the concrete to cool down. So, instead of this approach, the dam was assembled using a series of interconnected columns shaped like trapezoids.

In order to maintain its strength, the concrete was poured at a maximum depth of six inches. This depth also reduced the risk of workers being accidentally buried in the concrete. Cooling coils made of 1 inch steel pipe were present in each form to aid in cooling the concrete during the curing process. River water was circulated through these coils to facilitate the cooling.

Following the building of Hoover Dam, the cooled concrete layers were covered by cutting off and wrapping up the cooling coils. The lower cofferdam was utilized

to supply refrigerated water from a plant for additional chilling. As time passes, the concrete gains strength through its curing process. The quantity of concrete employed in constructing this dam would have been sufficient for paving a two-lane highway stretching between San Francisco and New York. Although there is some contention regarding who was the initial and final individual to perish while working on it, 112 fatalities transpired during its construction.

The first victim of the construction of Hoover Dam was apparently J.G. Tierney, a surveyor who drowned while searching for an optimal location to build the dam.

Interestingly, Patrick W. Tierney, the offspring of the dam laborer who perished, also died precisely 13 years after his father's demise. It should be emphasized that the mentioned death toll (96) pertaining to the building of the dam does not encompass a surveyor who expired while scouting for a feasible site or fatalities resulting from factors such as heart attacks, heat strokes or carbon monoxide poisoning.

The Hoover Dam's immense power comes from its seventeen turbine-generators, capable of producing up to 2,074 megawatts of hydroelectric power. Construction of the powerhouse and the dam foundation excavation occurred simultaneously in November 1933. By October 26th, 1936, generators at the Hoover Power plant were already transmitting electricity over a distance of 266 miles along the Colorado River to Los Angeles. Further units were added until as late as 1961.

The water from Lake Mead flows through narrowing tunnels to the powerhouse at a speed of approximately 85 miles per hour, where it reaches the turbines, with all of the Colorado River's water going through these turbines. Although the spillways are available, they are

seldom used. Hydroelectric power plants differ their power output according to electricity demands. The original design of the finished face of both the dam and power plant was a simple concrete wall topped with a balustrade and an industrial warehouse-like powerhouse, which drew criticism for being too ordinary for such a monumental structure. Los Angeles-based architect Gordon B. altered the design in response.

Kaufmann revamped the exterior of the dam, introducing a sophisticated style across the project and adding sculptured turrets to the dam face. Additionally, he set clock faces on the intake towers to reflect Arizona and Nevada time zones, with the clocks showing the same time for most of the year as Arizona refrains from using daylight saving time. In addition to being an engineering marvel, The Hoover Dam is also a path for crossing over the Colorado River in the United States.

Route 93, which leads to the Hoover Dam, is a hazardous two-lane road with numerous treacherous turns and significant security concerns following the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. In response, the Hoover Dam Bypass project was hastened to enhance traffic flow and increase safety. The bypass construction will conclude in 2010 and will redirect US 93 traffic approximately 1,500 feet downstream from the dam.

Despite its continued use as a crossing, traffic across Hoover Dam is currently restricted. Certain types of vehicles, including RVs, covered bed trucks, and SUVs, undergo inspection before being permitted to cross. The bypass will take the form of a composite steel and concrete arch bridge named the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.

The Colorado River bridge prohibits several vehicle types such as semi-trailer trucks, enclosed-box trucks

with a length exceeding 40 feet, and luggage-carrying buses. These vehicles must use an alternative route to cross the river. Hoover Dam generates electricity that Arizona, California, and Nevada share. A table from Hoover Dam displays the energy production percentage distribution for each state under two columns: "Area" and "Percentage." The generated energy percentages for Arizona and Nevada are 18.9527% and 23%, respectively.

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California accounts for 3706%, while Burbank, CA accounts for 28.5393%, Glendale, CA for 0.5876%, and Pasadena, CA for 1.5874%.

Southern California Edison Co. supplies the majority of electricity in Los Angeles, CA at a rate of 3629%, while Azusa, CA only accounts for 0.5377%.

The percentage of COVID-19 cases in various cities in California:

• Anaheim, CA - 1104%
• Banning, CA - 1487%
• Colton, CA - 0.0442%
• Riverside, CA - 0.0884%

The Hoover Dam has several interesting facts including the percentages of Vernon, CA at 8615%, Boulder City, NV at 0.6185%, and others at 1.7672%. Construction occurred from April 20, 1931 to March 1, 1936 with a total cost of $49 million. This is equivalent to $676 million today. Unfortunately, there were 112 deaths attributed to construction with most (96) occurring on site. The dam stands tall at a height of 726.4 ft.

The Hoover Dam, with a length of 1244 ft and a thickness of 660 ft at the base (45 ft thick at its crest), is the second tallest dam in the United States, following Oroville Dam. It was constructed using 4.36 million yd? of concrete and generates electricity through water turbines producing 2,080 megawatts. The dam receives daily traffic from around 13,000 to 16,000 people according to the Federal Highway Administration. Lake

Mead has an area of about 157,900 acres and extends for approximately 110 miles behind the dam when full holding roughly 28,537,000 acre feet at an elevation of 1,221.

The Lake Mead National Recreation Area, which spans for four feet, attracts around 8 to 10 million tourists annually, making it the fifth busiest national park in the United States. The park welcomes visitors, including those who come to see the Hoover Dam.

The original plan for the Boulder Dam project was to construct it in Boulder Canyon, but due to a better construction site being available in Black Canyon, the location was changed. Despite this change, the project retained its name as the Boulder Dam project. Construction began on July 7th, 1930 and on September 17th of that same year during the official start of the project, Ray L. Wilbur – Secretary of Interior under President Hoover – announced that the dam would now be named Hoover Dam in honor of the serving president. This followed a tradition where significant dams were named after presidents such as Wilson Dam and Coolidge Dam.

Hoover sought recognition for job creation during the Great Depression while campaigning for re-election. The name Hoover Dam became official with the passing of the Congressional Act on February 14, 1931. Despite these efforts, Hoover lost his re-election bid and the presidency to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932. In his memoirs, he recounted stopping to view the dam construction at night on his return to Washington after his defeat.

Expressing his immense joy, he remarked how his long-standing dream is finally materializing with the construction of the dam using stone and cement. He had been

leading the Colorado River Commission for a decade now while striving towards this goal. He also emphasized how this remarkable structure is the most ambitious engineering endeavor ever undertaken by humankind.

He expressed his desire to witness the completion of the Hoover Dam as a bystander and would still feel personally satisfied. When President Roosevelt assumed office on March 4th, 1933, he brought Harold Ickes as the new Secretary of the Interior, replacing Ray Lyman Wilbur. Ickes immediately removed Hoover's name from the Boulder Canyon Project and wrote to the Bureau of Reclamation on May 8th, 1933, regarding a pamphlet for the Century of Progress Exposition.

I kindly request that the dam be referred to as Boulder Dam in this pamphlet, as well as in any correspondence or other references made to the dam in the future. (Hoover Dam) The change in name did not happen immediately; it took several years to remove and replace the title of Hoover Dam on all documents, tourist and promotional materials. After the death of Roosevelt in 1945 and Harold Ickes' retirement in 1946, California Congressman Jack Anderson introduced a bill to restore the name Hoover Dam. The resolution passed on March 6th, and on April 30th, 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed into law that "…the name of Hoover Dam is hereby restored to the dam on the Colorado River in Black Canyon constructed under the authority of the Boulder Canyon Project Act…Any law, regulation, document, or record of the United States in which such dam is designated or referred to under the name of Boulder Dam shall be held to refer to such dam under and by the name

of Hoover Dam."

(Hoover Dam) Hoover noted in his journal that Secretary Ickes changed the name of the dam following a suggestion from Hiram Johnson. Despite not being invited to the dedication ceremonies by President Roosevelt, Hoover believed the primary significance of the project was the engineering feat that would benefit millions. However, in 1947 Congress restored the name Hoover Dam, which Ickes strongly opposed.

An oral history of the Great Depression's Building Hoover Dam, authored by Lee, RA, is featured in the Journal of the West (Fall 2003 issue, Volume 42, Issue 4) with an unspecified page number. The topic revolves around the construction of Hoover Dam and is presented within a HTML paragraph tag.The Bureau of Reclamation was responsible for supervising the building of Hoover Dam, located at 101-101 in the United States. Those seeking details about the construction can consult the "Hoover Dam" article on Wikipedia found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Dam. Marion V. Allen has authored a book covering both Hoover Dam and Boulder City.

CP Printing and Publishing released a publication in 1983 in Redding, CA.