On Friday my brother had the day off so we decided to go to the Hoover Dam. He had never been to it. We got to take a tour and see the generators and stand over one of the diversion pipes. When we were standing over one of the pipes you felt a vibration under you. The guide told us that we were feeling 78,000 gallons of water rushing through the pipe!
Here's Carl...just hanging out by the generators!
And here are some pictures of the actual dam...a pretty amazing man-made structure! Did you know that the dam is about 600 feet thick?!
It was a little windy at the dam as you can tell from this picture!
We went through a special exhibit that told the story of how the dam was built and how many people it took to complete the job. There were some interesting displays about the different types of jobs and how much workers were paid. They said one of the most important jobs was the guy who cleaned and maintained the bathrooms! He used to carry a necklace made out of toilet paper rolls around, ready to stock the bathrooms!
They are creating a cement arch bridge that will go across the river. When it is finished, it will be the largest cement arch bridge in the country, the 5th largest in the world. It will help cut down on traffic across the dam. Many people travel over the dam to go from Arizona to Nevada. Plus, there are about 5,000 people that visit the dam every day! That's a lot of traffic! I would not want to be one of the workers who is working on building that bridge.
Here are a few pictures of a display that is next to the dam, winged statues. Behind the dam is the largest man-made lake, Lake Mead. Back in 1995 I think, there was a time when the water level got so high that it was 7 and 1/2 feet away from going over the dam! Luckily they have the diversion pipes to lead the water away and prevent it from going over the top.
As we were leaving the Hoover Dam, we got a second chance to take a picture of the "Welcome to Nevada" sign!
2 comments:
Kids, the 600-ft thickness is one of the reasons why Hoover Dam is the ideal place to hide Megatron.
Liane actually called us while we were there and wanted Carl to ask the guide, "Where are you hiding Megatron?" He didn't ask so now we'll never know!
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