The Hoover dam in the United States was constructed on the Colorado river in 1936 and is the largest Concrete Formwork dam in the country. It is in the boundary between Nevada and Arizona and is also regarded as a major tourist in the country. The massive arch dam took five years to complete and employed more than 5,000 people at one time in the construction work. A total of 112 people laid down their lives for the construction of this iconic dam and causes of death range from drowning to falling from the height of the dam.
At that time, Nevada was a neglected part of the country and Las Vegas was nothing more than a small desert town with the population of a few thousand people only. It is safe to say that the Hoover dam completely changed the game for the region as it supplied much-needed water for the people and as a result, it eventually got habituated. The Hoover dam is an amazing marvel for us to see, but how was it constructed? Here are some vintage photos that show us different stages of construction of the dam:
This skip would take workers to the top of the constructions site itself.
There were several tunnels to allow emergency flow and generation if required.
This steel bucket-thing was used to transport concrete deep inside the tunnels.
The scaffolding and drilling rig that was used to tunnel through. It was very innovative eighty years back.
Folks from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation are here to see off the project.
This remote concrete mixing plant downstream provided much of the cementing material for the dam. It might not be the largest dam in the world or the most advanced but it is a nice piece of vintage engineering that is very innovative.