Hoover Dam

Truly a modern wonder of the world, the Hoover Dam is one of the great feats of human ingenuity. Its creation was a saga of large-scale ambition and engineering genius executed by a labour force of thousands working in gruelling conditions. The project involved the rerouting of a great river and the construction of a vast concrete edifice, and began as America was in the midst of an unprecedented economic slump. But just what did it take to build this extraordinary landmark? Why was it considered such a vitally important project – and at what cost? And, almost 100 years since construction began, can it now be said that the sacrifice was worth it? This is a Short History Of the Hoover Dam. A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Michael Green, Professor of History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Written by Dan Smith | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Matt Peaty | Sound design by Oliver Sanders | Assembly edit by Dorry Macaulay | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact Check: Sean Coleman Unlock the next two episodes of Short History Of… right now by subscribing to Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network, including Real Survival Stories and Sherlock Holmes Short Stories. Just click the subscription banner at the top of the feed, or head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions to get started. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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  It is late November 1932. A cool day in Black Canyon on the Colorado River, on the border between the US states of Nevada and Arizona.

• 0:57Speaker 02

  Just upstream, the water has been temporarily diverted through gigantic, man-made tunnels to allow a dam to be constructed here.

• 1:09Speaker 02

  700 feet above the ground, 28-year-old Oliver Cowan hangs precariously against the canyon's rocky face, whistling cheerfully to himself.

• 1:21Speaker 02

  His job here is to strip away the loose rock and expose the dense, durable surface beneath, against which the dam can be built. All that keeps him from plummeting earthwards is a canvas seat suspended from the rim above by hemp ropes.

• 1:39Speaker 02

  He calls a warning to his fellow workers, "high scalers" as they are known, that he is about to set to work smoothing the crag. He has to bellow to ensure his voice carries above the breeze that whistles through this great cleft in the landscape.

• 1:56Speaker 02

  Adjusting himself in his seat, he secures the hard hat he has conjured out of an old cloth cap dipped in tar and dried rigid. Then he sets the 44-pound jackhammer going, his ears filling with its explosive sound as great chunks of stone dislodge from the rock face.

• 2:18Speaker 02

  A little further along, another man swings back and forth, building up a head of momentum until he resembles a human pendulum. It's a little party trick he has perfected to entertain the crowds below, who gather to watch these men at their dangerous work.

• 2:35Speaker 02

  He only stops when a shout goes up nearby. They are about to dynamite a section of particularly resistant rock.

• 2:43Speaker 02

  Cowan takes a moment's pause from his work, catching his breath and letting his arms recover their strength.

• 2:50Speaker 02

  But suddenly, there is a shout of terror from higher up.

• 2:55Speaker 02

  He glances up to see a man losing his balance on the ledge above him. Instinctively, Cowan swings himself across the rock face, lithe as an acrobat. With arm outstretched, he grabs at the falling worker's trouser leg and somehow manages to get him in his grip. He is all that protects the man, an engineer, from a certain and grisly death on the unforgiven ground far below.

• 3:23Speaker 02

  A second or two later, another high scaler swings across to meet Cowan, and between them, they manage to pin the engineer to the canyon face. Drawing on all their strength and dexterity, they keep him there until a rope line is dropped from above. Once he is secured, he is hauled up to safety. Shaken, but alive.

• 3:46Speaker 02

  Cowan and his mate know their efforts will be good for a drink or two once they're back on the ground tonight. But for now, there is work still to be done. After they recover themselves, they maneuver back to their original positions, and Cowan fires up his jackhammer once again. Such is the life of a high scaler out here in the desert, working on the construction of the Hoover Dam.

• 4:18Speaker 02

  Truly a modern wonder of the world, the Hoover Dam is one of the great feats of human ingenuity. Its creation was a saga of large-scale ambition and engineering genius, executed by a labor force of thousands working in grueling conditions.

• 4:36Speaker 02

  The project involved the rerouting of a great river and the construction of a vast concrete edifice, and began as America was in the midst of an unprecedented economic slump. By the time it was finished and the casualties all counted, the dam brought water and hydroelectric power to millions. It was pivotal to the development of the American Southwest, not least the development of cities like Las Vegas.

• 5:05Speaker 02

  But just what did it take to build this extraordinary landmark? Why was it considered such a vitally important project? And at what cost? And almost 100 years since construction began, can it now be said that the sacrifice was worth it?

• 5:23Speaker 02

  I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is A Short History of the Hoover Dam.

• 5:40Speaker 02

  One of the longest rivers in the United States, the Colorado stretches some 1,450 miles through the American Southwest. It takes in seven states, from tributaries in Wyoming through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, California, Nevada and New Mexico, before passing into Mexico.

• 6:01Speaker 02

  Named for its reddish hue caused by heavy silt deposits, it rolls through desert landscapes for much of its course, where it has carved out spectacular natural features like the Grand Canyon over millions of years.

• 6:15Speaker 02

  For at least eight millennia, humans live in small settlements along its banks. But by the mid-1800s, there is a determined effort by the federal government to accelerate development of the region. Integral to this grand project is the search for ways to tame the mighty Colorado River and put it to work, irrigating the parched desert ground and providing drinking water for a resident population. Somehow, its cycle of drought and flooding must be broken.

• 6:48Speaker 02

  Michael Green is professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

• 6:52Speaker 03

  You can find evidence that people were talking about damming this river back in the mid-19th century. There were people in Southern California at the time who realized what a wild river it was. You start to see some activity in the late 1890s. There's a canal built just north of the Mexican border, and it's in an area that the builder called the Imperial Valley.

• 7:19Speaker 02

  The Alamo Canal is the first concerted attempt to divert the waters of the Colorado for the purposes of irrigation. Though expensive to operate and maintain, initially it does its job well, allowing a boom in agriculture and paving the way for a phase of rapid settlement in the valley.

• 7:38Speaker 02

  Electric companies are also beginning to scout out potential sites along the river for hydroelectric power stations. But for now, it's still very difficult to transmit electric power in this area beyond about 80 miles, which means that the potential customer base is limited to a few large mines. It's a chicken-and-egg situation. Large towns and cities can't be built until there are reliable water and energy supplies, but these supplies won't go online until there are enough people and businesses ready to consume them.

• 8:11Speaker 02

  In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt's government establishes the US Reclamation Service, charged with investigating potential water development projects in western states.

• 8:22Speaker 03

  The idea was that the federal government would sell public land, take the money from it, and build dams and irrigation systems, and this would help agriculture in the West.

• 8:33Speaker 02

  But in 1905, a breach in the Alamo Canal causes the Colorado to flood.

• 8:40Speaker 02

  Its waters fill a natural sink to create a huge inland lake, initially around 45 miles long and 17 miles wide.

• 8:50Speaker 02

  A Native American reservation and swathes of fertile farmlands are inundated, and it costs the Southern Pacific Railroad several million dollars to stabilize the waterway to save its railroad from being submerged. Longer term, evaporation leads to extreme salinity, with elevated levels of toxins killing off much of the wildlife that makes its home there. The crisis prompts a serious reassessment of how best to subdue the river to human advantage.

• 9:21Speaker 02

  To this end, and with increasing interest in hydroelectric power, the Reclamation Service draws up a scheme to dynamite the walls of Boulder Canyon on the Nevada-Arizona border and use the resulting rubble to dam the river. Little progress is made on the idea until the early 1920s, when an alternative site is pinpointed. Black Canyon is about 20 miles downriver. It's a striking location with jagged cliffs of black volcanic rock rearing high above the roaring river and a sparse inhospitable desert beyond. Plans soon get underway for what will still be called the Boulder Canyon Project, despite its relocation.

• 10:06Speaker 02

  Early on, there is talk of building a railroad spur to the canyon from Las Vegas. For now, a settlement of less than 5,000 people founded fewer than 20 years earlier. The spur would allow for labor and supplies to be brought to the desert sites with relative ease. But there is a long road ahead to turn concept into reality. Not least, there are the seven states through which the river runs that need to reach some sort of agreement on a strategy.

• 10:35Speaker 03

  You've got people who doubt that it can be done. And in fact, the dam demanded technology that they really hadn't thought of when they were talking about building it in the first place. You had a lot of questions raised back east because the reclamation program that Teddy Roosevelt had approved was supposed to pay for itself and didn't. But Easterners looked at this and said, "We're going to be on the hook for this. Why should we pay for it?"

• 11:06Speaker 02

  Among the most vocal critics is the owner of the Los Angeles Times, Harry Chandler. He fears the project will have a detrimental impact on the irrigation of hundreds of thousands of acres of land his family owns downriver in Mexico. Several wealthy, private utilities companies support this opposition, concerned that publicly-owned power from the government-backed dam could drive private sector providers out of business. Then, in 1927, unusually heavy rains in the American South see the Mississippi burst its banks.

• 11:41Speaker 02

  Some 27,000 square miles are flooded, leaving 500 people dead and hundreds of thousands homeless. It is a timely reminder of the destructive potential of the nation's great rivers and increases the pressure to greenlight a dam for the Colorado.

• 11:59Speaker 02

  Opposition starts to weaken. When private energy bosses are exposed as having tried to bribe members of Congress to vote against the dam, public opinion turns firmly against their cause.

• 12:14Speaker 02

  At the same time, out in Los Angeles, an engineer by the name of William Malholland is leading a drive to develop the city.

• 12:23Speaker 02

  He makes a promise to buy whatever energy a prospective dam's hydroelectric plant might be able to produce. He is responsible for many of the city's major infrastructure projects and knows L.A. is going to need all the power it can get if it is to become the thriving metropolis he envisages.

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• 15:31Speaker 02

  In December 1928, President Calvin Coolidge signs into law the Boulder Canyon Project Act, popularly referred to as the Swing Johnson Act, after the two Californian Republicans who championed it. With $165 million set aside for the work, all that's left is the small matter of getting the project up and running. Earlier that year, a recently completed dam in the county of Los Angeles failed, causing flooding that killed over 400. The tragedy hammers home the importance of getting the design just right and the work executed to the highest standards. But despite the shadow cast, there is generally an air of optimism.

• 16:15Speaker 03

  At the time the Swing Johnson Act passed and was signed by President Calvin Coolidge late in 1928, oh, everything was so prosperous. There was nothing to worry about. This was just going to add to the existing prosperity.

• 16:30Speaker 02

  But a year later, just a few months after the new president, Herbert Hoover, takes office, the nation is about to learn just how fragile prosperity can be.

• 16:41Speaker 02

  The 24th of October, 1929, seems much like any other Thursday as the New York Stock Exchange opens for business. But as traders begin the intricate ballet of buying and selling, it is soon apparent that something significant is afoot.

• 16:58Speaker 02

  Though the '20s have been good times for stock market speculators, for months now, banks have been becoming nervous. Amid unchecked stock prices rising alarmingly high, they have cut back on giving credit. And today, the bubble bursts. Prices tumble as sellers dump stock before it becomes entirely worthless. And by the evening of what comes to be known as Black Thursday, the market has lost 10% of its value.

• 17:29Speaker 02

  It signals the beginning of the so-called Great Depression that casts the U.S. and vast swathes of the world into economic crisis for years to come. Banks collapse, mass unemployment takes hold, and industrial production falls off a cliff. For millions, poverty becomes the norm. Among the many questions the government faces, it must decide whether or not to proceed with building a hugely expensive dam in the desert. Hoover is by no means an advocate of big government, and some wonder if he will take the opportunity to pull the plug. But he does not.

• 18:07Speaker 03

  I think there's a commitment on Hoover's part, in part because as Secretary of Commerce and by training an engineer, he was very involved in the negotiations among the seven states that share the Colorado River as to how much water would go to each state. In a sense, it was his baby. And I don't think he wanted to smother his baby in the crib. And then, once you get to where the project's going to be built, there is a lot of popular support for it, partly because of the Great Depression and the realization that this thing was going to create jobs, which made it appealing to not only the general public, but politicians who could then take credit.

• 18:52Speaker 02

  The search begins in earnest for the contractors who will take on the job. No one is under any allusion as to the scale of the challenge. Before construction can even begin, the river must be temporarily diverted away. But the waterway is immense, a hundred yards wide at Black Canyon, with an average 600,000 liters per second passing through the ravine, and frequently, much, much more. The diversion alone will require vast banks of equipment and thousands of laborers.

• 19:25Speaker 03

  There's nothing really that compares right on point with what they did with the dam. If they are going to build a dam in the river, they have to move the river out of the way. So really, the key thing is to dig tunnels in Black Canyon to be able to move the waters of the Colorado, block it, so that then they can get the dam built, close the tunnels, and have the water build up behind the dam. This is essentially saying, "We've got the Empire State Building that hadn't been built yet, but here's the Empire State Building, move it a block, and then we'll move it back." You're asking a lot.

• 20:07Speaker 02

  Added to that, it's all to be achieved while the economy is in dire straits. But Hoover is resolute, and one of his appointees makes the announcement of the name of the project.

• 20:20Speaker 03

  In 1930, Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilber visited the area, and they drove a spike for the railroad they were building, and he announced that this will be called Hoover Dam. And there was a crowd there, and they booed. Herbert Hoover was not popular. The Depression had been going on, and it was not a name many people wanted on it.

• 20:42Speaker 02

  Also, traditionally, projects such as these are named to honor past leaders, not sitting ones. Nonetheless, the decision is signed into law a few months later.

• 20:56Speaker 02

  By then, design work is already well underway at what is now called the Bureau of Reclamation.

• 21:02Speaker 03

  The top designer for dams for the Interior Department at the time was John Savage, who had been there many years, and over a 20-year period, helped design Hoover Dam, Parker Dam, the Grand Cooley Dam, in other words, eventually bigger dams than Hoover Dam. And he went out there, he looked at it, trying to figure out, "Okay, how do we put it in there? How do we design this?"

• 21:30Speaker 02

  He decides to go with a hybrid approach, combining the gravity dam that uses its own weight to hold water back and the arch dam that relies on its curvature to channel water pressure into the canyon walls. At Black Canyon, the arch gravity dam he proposes will rise up in a vast but narrowing curve.

• 21:53Speaker 02

  It will not be the first such structure, but it is certainly the biggest. At 660 feet, its base is as thick as two football pitches laid end to end. It is as tall as a 50-story skyscraper and is longer at almost 1,250 feet than the Eiffel Tower is high.

• 22:15Speaker 02

  In January 1931, the Bureau releases its project document comprising 100 pages of text and 76 drawings, and invites contractors to bid for the work. It stipulates that construction must be completed within seven years, and each bidder must submit a $2 million bond to confirm their seriousness. The winner is also required to post a $5 million performance deposit, which would be forfeit in the event of failure to complete the project.

• 22:46Speaker 03

  There were different groups, different businesses, that were interested. One of them was the Utah Construction Company, but they couldn't put up the $5 million for a performance bond to show that they were serious. So they worked with a company, Morrison-Newtonson, that had been involved in various engineering projects, and Morrison-Newtonson's staff included a guy named Frank Crowe. Crowe had been a veteran of the Bureau of Reclamation, loved dam building, loved getting involved, and he had gone into private enterprise. And he was really the one who did the work, if you will, to figure out the bid and the project.

• 23:28Speaker 02

  Other companies are brought in to share skills, knowledge, and risk, coming together as a consortium called Six Companies.

• 23:35Speaker 03

  And Crowe did the bid, and knowing dam building as he did, he brought the bid in at just the right amount to satisfy the federal government.

• 23:45Speaker 02

  The project has liftoff.

• 23:49Speaker 02

  Working from Savage's original design, a host of experts are brought in to add their own touches. Electrical engineer Mabel McFerran Rockwell emerges as a pivotal figure in the construction of the electricity plant, the only woman to have a prominent role in the design process. Where Savage's drawings have a slightly curious Gothic-modernist aesthetic, the Los Angeles-based architect Gordon B. Kaufman leads a redesign of the exteriors. He offers a stylish Art Deco makeover with sleek geometric lines, stylized bronze statues, and intricate bas-relief work.

• 24:27Speaker 02

  The interior meanwhile is a vast industrial complex, comprising concrete inspection tunnels and galleries, huge steel water pipes, and generating rooms. Alan Tupper Tru, a Denver-based artist, is hired to work on the inside space and introduces a bold color scheme for the walls and machinery. There are stylish terrazzo floors and decorative flourishes such as motifs representing water, rain, and power, inspired by the region's Native American heritage. The Norwegian-born Oscar J.W. Hansen meanwhile prepares iconic sculptural elements. These include the monumental winged figures of the Republic,

• 25:10Speaker 02

  two 30-foot Art Deco-style angel figures, each crafted from four tons of bronze and sitting on a black stone base.

• 25:23Speaker 02

  Groundworks begin earlier than scheduled, in mid-1930. The following year, Crowe is brought in as project manager and brings his own core team with him.

• 25:33Speaker 03

  There were dam workers, builders, who followed Crowe around. If Crowe worked on a particular dam, they worked for him, and once he was done there, and there was another one to work on, then they'd follow him to that one.

• 25:50Speaker 02

  To his bosses, he is a man with a proven track record of getting work done on time and in budget, and to his trusted inner circle, he is an inspiration. To the general workforce, though, he is a punishing taskmaster. Financially incentivized to get the project over the line, he is ruthless in his demands. Under his supervision, teams begin the railroad spur and the installation of power lines. Then, it is time to divert the river.

• 26:20Speaker 02

  Four massive tunnels are punched through the canyon walls, two on the Nevada side and two on the Arizona side, each well over 50 feet in diameter and together stretching for over three miles. By May 1931, Black Canyon is roaring 24 hours a day with the noise of jackhammers and dynamite blasts, while a combination of railroad cars, trucks, and teams of mules haul supplies around the site. Work only stops on the Fourth of July and Christmas Day.

• 26:53Speaker 02

  All the while, the area floods with hopeful arrivals from all over the country seeking work, the Depression having done for millions of jobs. Some are put to work almost immediately, typically for between $4 and $6 a day, but others have to wait.

• 27:10Speaker 03

  There was an employment office, run much of the time by a man named Leonard Blood, and people would line up and apply for various jobs. And it wasn't that it was incredibly selective, but I liken it in a way to the draft in World War II, where if you show up and you say you have a certain talent, well, they might find a place for you sooner than they would somebody else who didn't have that talent, and they'll just send you off to the infantry or whatever.

• 27:36Speaker 02

  It has always been intended that a proper, organized living facility would be built for workers, of whom there are about 3,500 at the moment, comprising basic laborers, tunnel workers, and high scalers, and their families. But construction on Boulder City, as it is to be called, is running late, while work on the dam has started early.

• 27:59Speaker 02

  A few workers find accommodation in Las Vegas, while others camp out where they can.

• 28:04Speaker 03

  In Las Vegas, there was this beautiful downtown courthouse with a nice lawn. People were living on the lawn, especially once the Depression started, waiting for the jobs to open at the dam.

• 28:16Speaker 02

  More still take up residence in a squatter settlement not far from where Boulder City is planned to be built, but conditions are far from idyllic.

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  It is July 1931. In a tattered tent, a young mother leans over the cradle of her feverish infant. As the child sobs miserably, she touches the back of her hand to his forehead and sighs, before dabbing his face yet again with a damp cloth to try to cool him. Eventually, he settles a little, and she stands up from her seat, in reality, an old packing case. She's been here a couple of months now, but is no more at home in this sprawling settlement than the day she arrived. Officially named Williamsville, everyone calls it Ragtown.

• 31:07Speaker 02

  She opens the tent flap, the bright sun blinding her momentarily. Outside, the place hums with chatter, the sound of children, and the small group of neighbors standing outside a lean-to made of cardboard and old tin, who are singing a hymn. With no electricity here, nor running water, she sets a pan on the open fire she started earlier. Once it's bubbling, she slops a pile of her baby's diapers into the water and prods at them with a wooden spoon. Her eyes glisten, but she fights back the tears. Crying just expends energy that she cannot afford to waste. It was meant to be a new start when she and her husband arrived here from West Virginia

• 31:52Speaker 02

  in the spring, a chance for him to secure a regular wage after he lost his mining job thanks to the Depression. But it's been tough since day one. It's the same for the several hundred other people in Ragtown. A neighbor wanders over with coffee to share, mixed with a precious spoonful of condensed milk. The woman savors it and thanks her before getting to work stretching the diapers out on a bush to dry. After checking her son is sleeping, she takes the short walk to the little shop just recently opened, stocked with goods from Las Vegas. The young mother inspects the various tins and fills her bags mostly with things that

• 32:34Speaker 02

  won't perish in this infernal heat: some corned beef, beans, and a single peach that the child might manage. The shopkeeper knows that money is short around here, so he has introduced an honor system where people pay what they can afford. She drops a few coins in a tin near the door and leaves. On her way back to her own tent, she pauses at the opening of another, where several solemn-looking people are gathered. The daughter of the family who live here has been sick for days, a fever off the charts, her stomach distended, and not a doctor nor any useful medicine to be found. From the tears of the small assembly and the sobs coming from inside, the woman understands

• 33:17Speaker 02

  that the girl has finally succumbed. Just the latest in a spate of deaths these last days, the soaring temperatures and insanitary conditions claiming another victim. The young mother from West Virginia crosses herself and ducks back inside her meager home, more anxious than ever for the health of her own child. For her and the other residents of Ragtown, Boulder City can't be ready soon enough. Conditions are bad in the camp, but are equally so in the diversion tunnels.

• 33:56Speaker 02

  Accidents are commonplace, as dynamite blasts a path through the rock foot by foot. But characteristically, Crowe has been working on a device to speed things along, an innovation known as the Jumbo.

• 34:12Speaker 03

  Crowe came up with this, how to get a lot of men and equipment moved. In essence, he created a three-story truck, or wagon, where you could move people around more easily and they could accomplish more.

• 34:28Speaker 02

  The temperatures in the tunnels frequently touch 130 degrees Fahrenheit, often leading to fatal heat stroke. Still, more laborers succumb to carbon monoxide inhalation, a result of the gasoline-fueled trucks emitting fumes with no place to go. The bosses, however, ensure that these fatalities are ascribed to causes such as pneumonia and other classifications that do not attract a compensation claim. With no action taken, it is not long before the bodies are piling up by the dozen. But in these desperate times, there is no shortage of workers to take their places.

• 35:07Speaker 03

  In the five years or so it took to build the dam, they employed about 21,000 people at one time or another. The peak of employment was in 1934, about 5,200. So you're talking about thousands of workers at a time.

• 35:24Speaker 02

  Originally, these are overwhelmingly white men, with a few Mexican-Americans and Native American Indians. But no work is given to African-Americans or Chinese workers.

• 35:36Speaker 03

  And in fact, the NAACP in Las Vegas, the chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, fought this. And eventually, there were black men hired to work on the dam, but even then, they were segregated.

• 35:51Speaker 02

  Crowe continues to drive his workers hard, earning the nickname "Hurry Up Crowe", from his habit of constantly urging his teams to work more quickly. He is a figure at once admired, respected, and feared. But as the boiling-hot summer of 1931 continues, resentment is growing. Frank Anderson, an official for the radical Industrial Workers of the World Union, organizes the men. On the 7th of August, after six companies cut the pay packet of some laborers, they come out on strike over pay and conditions. The US Secretary of Labor declines to intervene on the workers' behalf, and after two days,

• 36:33Speaker 02

  Crowe informs the strikers that their demands are being refused. He summarily fires vast numbers of the workforce and orders them off the site before starting to rehire men individually a few days later. With workers desperate and employment scarce amid the ongoing Depression, industrial action is called off. But despite the strike's apparent failure, the company never again attempts to cut wages. They also make some effort to improve conditions, by for instance, providing better lighting and more water. The development of Boulder City also picks up pace, and the first of its 5,000 planned residents move in before the year is out.

• 37:19Speaker 03

  They brought in an urban planner. He laid out a design, and this community that they built for the dam workers was pretty much a federal company town. A company town being the sort of thing where mining companies in particular were famous or infamous for this, that they'd build a community to house the workers, pay the workers in scrip or coupons, as opposed to paying them in cash. They could live in company houses, shop at the company store, eat at the company restaurant, and if they got upset and quit, they could go to the company bank, and if they'd saved any money, they got it in scrip. So they really were under control. And it had all of the accoutrements of a community, from the churches and the schools to the

• 38:04Speaker 03

  movie theater to a hotel. So on the one hand, you've got this incredibly unpleasant working environment, but a more pleasant living environment.

• 38:21Speaker 02

  Meanwhile, work on the concrete lining of the diversion tunnels starts in the spring of 1932, with the rerouting of the Colorado itself beginning in November. All the while, some 1,500,000 cubic yards of soil and other material are being excavated to form tunnels. Up above, the high scalers smooth the canyon walls down to virgin rock so as to minimize the opportunity for water seepage. Tommy Nelson is one of the workers working his fingers to the bone each day.

• 38:55Speaker 03

  Tommy Nelson told the story of being a flagman, where he's out there with a flag and having the trucks go in and out. And one high scaler fell, hundreds of feet, hit the pavement, ran over to try to help the guy, and somebody said, "What are you doing?" And Nelson said, "Well, I'm trying to help the guy." They said, "He's dead. Get back to moving the trucks." So I wouldn't say that the people in charge were always that concerned about the feelings and well-being of their workers.

• 39:25Speaker 02

  By June 1933, and incredible 18 months ahead of schedule, the scene is set to begin building the dam itself.

• 39:34Speaker 02

  The new president Franklin D. Roosevelt has been in office just a few months and is busy promoting what he calls "The New Deal," a wide-ranging program of reforms designed to see the nation bounce back from the Great Depression.

• 39:49Speaker 02

  Although work on the dam started under his political rivals, he sees it as a potential jewel in the New Deal crown, an important symbol of national revival. Even so, Roosevelt's new Minister for the Interior sets about distancing Hoover's name from the project, referring to it instead as the Boulder or Boulder Canyon Dam.

• 40:12Speaker 02

  On the ground, Crowe and other senior figures are still figuring out the management of this critical phase. Two specially-built facilities nearby get started manufacturing the concrete, of which the dam will need 3 million cubic yards, with a further million for the power plant. But the pouring of it is no simple matter.

• 40:32Speaker 02

  Because of the way concrete cools, cures, and contracts, the risk of cracking is significant. And that's not a risk a project of this kind can take. A plan is devised to build the dam as a series of large, interlocking concrete columns, ranging from about 25 to 60 feet across. Each column is poured gradually in blocks or lifts about 5 feet high. Each block contains a number of steel pipes through which a mixture of river water and refrigerated water can flow to assist with cooling. In total, there are almost 600 miles of piping, which are filled with grout as each block cools and contracts.

• 41:16Speaker 02

  Grout is then used to seal any gaps between individual blocks.

• 41:22Speaker 02

  Using specially-patented, 7-foot-tall steel buckets that can carry several tons of liquid concrete at a time, the material is maneuvered to where it is needed via a network of aerial cables. Once in place, the bottom of the bucket opens to release its load into what is effectively a large mold, with a team of men on hand to manually smooth it. The leviathan emerges at a pace. Until finally, the last bucket is poured on the 29th of May 1935. Crowe has brought the project in on budget and well ahead of deadline. It has been an extraordinary effort of creativity, resourcefulness, and resilience, but also sacrifice.

• 42:06Speaker 02

  In total, 112 workers have lost their lives, not to mention the many dozens more whose deaths have been recorded as pneumonia, and the others in Ragtown who have succumbed to the heat and illness. But now that it's complete, the dam is something of which America is greatly proud.

• 42:27Speaker 02

  With the diversion tunnels now sealed using concrete plugs and steel bulkheads, the Colorado River returns to its natural course. As planned, a gigantic reservoir forms behind the dam, soon filling to become the largest in the country in terms of maximum capacity.

• 42:46Speaker 02

  It eventually covers about 230 square miles, equivalent to the area of the city of Chicago at a depth of over 500 feet. It is named Lake Mead in honor of Elwood Mead, Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation during the dam's planning and construction.

• 43:05Speaker 03

  It's the Depression, and so many things are not going right, and here is something that seems to be going right. And there are people who call it the eighth wonder of the world.

• 43:15Speaker 02

  Finally, it is ready to be put to use.

• 43:25Speaker 00

  Everyone's got a hard question about AI: your job, your kids, where it's going. Anthropic was built to surface those questions and share what it finds along the way, because there's hope in hard questions. Ask yours at claud.ai/spotify and keep thinking. That's claud.ai/spotify.

• 43:51Speaker 01

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• 44:21Speaker 02

  It is the 30th of September 1935. A young boy stands amid a densely packed crowd at one of the specially-constructed observation posts around the rim of Black Canyon. He can remember no other home than Boulder City, his father having taken a job laboring on the dam back in '31, bringing his family out here to join him. So the boy is accustomed to the heat, even when it tops a breezless 100 Fahrenheit like today. But there is something overwhelming about the extra degrees generated by all these people. His older brother nudges him forward, pushing on through the crowd with their parents in search of the best vantage point.

• 45:03Speaker 02

  In the end, his father sweeps him up onto his shoulders so that he is better able to see what's going on. Up here, he takes it in.

• 45:13Speaker 02

  The mighty dam that rises up over 700 feet.

• 45:18Speaker 02

  Although there is something thoroughly modern about this vast wall of concrete, he has seen pictures in books of ancient temples that don't seem so different. It is a construction so vast and imposing that it seems almost to belong to another world. High above, an eagle glides. Its shrill call just cutting through the chaotic hubbub of voices down here. His father checks his watch and tells them it is nearly 11 o'clock, not long until the big event.

• 45:52Speaker 02

  From his newly elevated position, the boy smiles to discover that this crowd stretches across the rim. Someone told him yesterday that 10,000 were expected. Suddenly, the atmosphere changes. In the distance, a cavalcade of expensive motorcars courses across the barren landscape, sirens wailing. It comes to a stop a way off, and a little later, a man appears on a large platform built just above the dam. The boy squints to make out the man's face, and his father whispers that this is the president. As the man takes up his position, a huge American flag hanging limply behind in the heavy air, the crowd roars a huge cheer.

• 46:36Speaker 02

  The boy joins in, whooping as loudly as his lungs can muster.

• 46:43Speaker 02

  There is a little bit of fuzzy feedback as a massive public address system sizzles into life. A flurry of cameras go off as the press pack compete for the front-page shot. Then the president starts to speak.

• 46:57Speaker 06

  This morning, I came, I saw, and I was thundered, as everyone would be who sees for the first time this great feat of mankind.

• 47:25Speaker 02

  With a two-lane highway operating across its crest, what is for now still called the Boulder Dam soon becomes a leading tourist attraction, a place where Americans come to feel good about their nation. Soon, other standout infrastructure projects will be completed to rival it, like the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges in San Francisco and the Pasadena Freeway. Even so, the dam is widely considered the crowning achievement of the age. Crucially, it does its intended job with aplomb. By late 1936, Lake Mead is deep enough to permit power generation. Water gushes through the four 400-foot intake towers that then make use of the diversion tunnels

• 48:10Speaker 02

  to funnel water down to the power station. Reaching speeds of 85 miles per hour, the flow drives massive turbines that produce electricity. Altogether, it generates power for some half a million homes, while Lake Mead provides water for over 15 million people across Arizona, California, and Nevada. There are some ups and downs, of course. The filling of the lake, in fact, triggers a series of earth tremors, the worst of which strikes in 1939, recorded at 5.0 magnitude on the Richter scale, but failing to cause any significant damage. More significantly, just as had been hoped,

• 48:54Speaker 02

  Los Angeles grows markedly. Even more spectacularly, Las Vegas evolves from a small town in the desert to a thriving major city. Eventually, around 7 million tourists a year come to marvel at the dam, no doubt also drawn by the bright lights and the promise of untold wealth of the gaming tables of Vegas. In 1946, just after the end of the Second World War, the Republicans win control of Congress and set in motion the legislation to have the dam renamed in honor of their old leader. The Boulder Dam is officially rechristened the Hoover Dam in April 1947. But as the years roll by, there are problems.

• 49:38Speaker 02

  In 1983, Lake Mead reaches such capacity that the dam's spillways flood for the first time. And what its designers did not foresee were environmental shifts that could reduce the raw volume of water in the river.

• 49:54Speaker 03

  Climate change has had a big impact because the ice pack in the Upper Rockies is not what it used to be. That's where the water comes from that forms Lake Mead behind the dam and continues on down the Colorado River. Now then, you get the fact that, in a sense, the dam was too successful. The dam made possible all of this incredible growth in the southwestern United States, so that 5,100 population of Las Vegas, now there are more than 2 million people in Las Vegas and the surrounding area, and we all need water. Where do we get it? Well, Lake Mead is at one of its lowest levels ever, and it is going to hit the point

• 50:38Speaker 03

  where the turbines for creating the electricity are not going to work.

• 50:44Speaker 02

  Other long-term environmental impacts take a while to understand. Among them, the destruction of habitats and the way in which Lake Mead's sheer depth has caused a lowering of the water temperature with devastating effects on the river's aquatic life. In human terms, less water also increases tensions between all those reliant on it.

• 51:07Speaker 03

  Arizona was never happy with how much it was getting in relation to California. Nevada took very little water. Nevadans felt at the time we don't really need the water that much. There's another part of this we forget, which is that Mexico is supposed to get Colorado River water, and they're getting a trickle, if that. And that has been the case for decades. And it has been a source of displeasure, shall we say, in diplomatic relations.

• 51:39Speaker 02

  Though other dams and reservoirs along the Colorado also contribute to the issue, the lack of river flow to Mexico has devastated swathes of forest and wetland. Meanwhile, the various parties are engaged in long-running legal wranglings over the distribution of water and energy. Quite what the future holds for the dam and the millions who rely upon it is unclear.

• 52:01Speaker 03

  The dam itself, there are so many things to admire and love and respect about it. And then there are so many things that either were unforeseen circumstances that maybe should have been foreseen and long-term effects that now we can look back and say, gee, should we have really done that?

• 52:29Speaker 02

  No one can question that the dam is an engineering marvel, one that stands against any building project in history. But perhaps its success can only be judged over the long arc of time, with indicators growing that our attempts to contain nature often have far-reaching, unforeseen consequences. So it is perhaps the sort of scheme that we can at once admire for its ambition and skillfulness, while also learning important lessons for big infrastructure projects today.

• 53:00Speaker 03

  I think of it as a success in terms of accomplishing what it was supposed to accomplish in terms of water and power. It was a success in terms of things it wasn't necessarily expected to accomplish. It helps create the economy that we now associate with Las Vegas. It's a success if you think of it as a public works project that was good for the morale of the country at the time. There's another way to look at it, too. There's a wonderful architectural historian named Richard Guy Wilson, who referred to it as a kind of chapel of the machine age. If you look at the dam as an architectural structure, as a design structure,

• 53:45Speaker 03

  it's really fascinating and impressive. So in all of those ways, it really is a wonder. And then you think, well, yes, and it inspired all of that movement and growth. Is that a good thing? That depends on your point of view. Did they think in terms of climate impact? How the climate would affect them? How they might affect the climate? No, so the legacy is mixed, but there's a lot to admire.

• 54:21Speaker 02

  Next time on Short History of, we'll bring you a short history of the Sydney Opera House.

• 54:28Speaker 05

  I think those silhouettes of the sails, you know, those three curves which are used by the Opera House as their logo become a sort of international symbol for the building, and I think that helps a lot. I can't think of any other building that has that incredible sort of simplicity of silhouette that the Opera House has. So it's a language, I guess, that people readily understand. And I think when people also appreciate the difficult path, the gestation, the construction, it becomes even more interesting because it was so fraught with problems, the intrinsically human.

• 55:09Speaker 02

  That's next time. You can listen to the next two episodes of Short History of right now, without waiting and without adverts, by subscribing to Noiser Plus. Just hit the link in the episode description or head to www-noiser.com/subscriptions to unlock more episodes today.

• 55:29Speaker 00

  Everyone's got a hard question about AI: your job, your kids, where it's going. Anthropic was built to surface those questions and share what it finds along the way, because there's hope in hard questions. Ask yours at claude.ai/spotify and keep thinking. That's claude.ai/spotify. Everyone's got a hard question about AI: your job, your kids, where it's going. Anthropic was built to surface those questions and share what it finds along the way, because there's hope in hard questions. Ask yours at claude.ai/spotify and keep thinking. That's claude.ai/spotify.