Hoover Dam is located 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River. It sits on the border of Arizona and Nevada and connects the two states via U.S. Route 93 which runs along the top of the dam.
The dam was built between 1931 and 1936 by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. It is a gravity-arch dam made from over 4 million cubic yards of concrete. The dam is 726 ft high and 1244 feet long. At the bottom, the dam is 660 ft thick which tapers to 45 feet at the top. The construction of the dam led to the formation of Lake Mead, which serves as a giant reservoir that extends 110 miles behind the face of the dam. At the base of Hoover Dam is a U-shaped power plant that contains 17 turbine generators spread over ten acres of floor space. The hydroelectric generators have a maximum power output of approximately 2000 megawatts, which is distributed primarily to Arizona, Nevada, and California.
This page contains 22 photos of Hoover Dam, including pictures of the concrete dam wall, intake towers, and the electrical generators.
