Light/Breezes

Light/Breezes
SUNRISE AT DEATH VALLEY-Photo by Tom Cochrun

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

A WONDER OF THE WORLD

ONE OF THE WONDERS?
     The sculptures at the Hoover Dam are the centerpiece of a tile inlayed plaza that is a type of earth calendar and cosmic communication piece.  It places the Hoover Dam in a league with the Pyramids and the Roman Coliseum. And
there is some truth to that.
   More than a hundred humans lost their lives in the building of the Boulder Dam from 1931 to 1935.  Later dedicated to former President Herbert Hoover, it was the largest concrete project ever undertaken and employed thereto for untested techniques.  It remains a colossal achievement.
    Built in Black Canyon on the Colorado River, it impounds Lake Meade.  Constructed under President Franklin Roosevelt, it is a hydroelectric generation source. A consortium of parties, Six Companies, won the bid and built the project for around $42 Million.  They finished almost a year early.
    Nearly a million people visit the Hoover Dam, now a tourist site as well.  Highway 93 used to run across the top of the dam, but the traffic has now been diverted to another amazing construct, the by pass bridge, just recently opened.







    Here on the border of Nevada and Arizona are a couple of
examples of human endeavor, built large and indeed planetary markers.

See you down the trail.

5 comments:

  1. I've gotten close to the dam several times but I've never actually seen it. Time for a road trip. Great photos.

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  2. are you on an official TOUR of the great WEST? -w-

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  3. An amazing example of what "has" been done. I doubt that it could be done today for a myriad of reasons. One need only look at the 23 year process to replace the east span of the Oakland Bay Bridge to see an example of today's development inertia.

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