Hoover Dam - 1986

Impressive structure and capture, great perspective. Thanks for the interesting notes.

Un résumé intéressant sur ce grand barrage !! Merci

Beeindruckend!

ja - der ist gewaltig!

Gigantic engineering work!
Splendid view
Many thanks also for the interesting information, Berny

Genau da stand ich damals auch. Das war glaubs '96.
Ich weiss noch, wie ich den Guide damals enttäuschen musste, als er erzählte, das sei die höchste Staumauer der Welt. Damals war das noch die Staumauer von Grand Dixence in der Schweiz, mit 285 m Höhe. Inzwischen sind wir wohl von drei, vier chinesischen Mauern übertrumpft worden. ;-)

;-) Auch die guides wissen nicht alles, oder wollen es nicht wissen. Ich habe nachgeschaut, 1996 waren bereits 17 höhere Mauern/Dämme gebaut. Aber der Hoover Dam war lange Zeit der höchste - und ist noch immer einer der schönsten, finde ich.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_dams

Die Ausmaße werden erst beim Blick auf die Strommasten klar!

Am besten sieht man die Ausmaße, wenn man am vorherigen Bild den Truck tief unten anschaut ;-)

Belle muraille !

ik wist al veel ,maar dit nog niet Berny!

The scale of this dam is extraordinary.................and what a wonderful piece of engineering!

Your photo's really do it justice Berny...........and give us some views not normally seen. Superb documentary photography sir.

Thanks also for taking the trouble to provide us more information in the links. Much appreciated.

Thank you for the interesting links, Berny. It's hard for me to see a dam without thinking of what happened in my home province when I was a child. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajont_Dam

I know this tragedy very well, Annalia. I was designing hydro power plants for many years. The dam resisted in Vajont, but the landslide into the lake was so huge, that the flood wave overtopped the dam and caused the catastrophic flood wave downstream!

Yes, the dam held. In fact, it's still there today. But in a sense that compounded the disastrous effect: the water "jumped" over the dam and came down the valley with even greater and more concentrated violence. However, those responsible for the tragedy were not the dam designers or builders, but those who ignored the warnings of geologists first and the signs of an imminent landslide later. I was only 4 years old at the time but the shock and grief I sensed from the adults were so strong that those are the earliest memories I have. Well, those and snatches of olfactory memories of my grandma cooking ... :))

Moin,
das sieht imposant aus.
Danke für die Infos.
Weard

Very impressive indeed. Even better, there are Art Deco details.

I didn't recognize in 1986 that it's Art decó, only recently, and I love Art decó!

:-O

At least in 2010 there was a commercial boat trip from the base of the dam downstream to Willow Beach on the Arizona side. Recommended! You get some different views of both the dam and Black Canyon. We took the trip in July 2010--the height of summer--but the cool river makes it bearable. I have an album on it: www.ipernity.com/doc/289859/album/1290946

Would be surely impressive!
We made a boat trip from Hall's Crossing Marina to Rainbow Bridge in 1996. Was exciting too.

Wenn man solche Dämme sieht, fragt man sich was passiert, wenn er bricht. Besonders wenn man ganz unten steht.

Ein Brechen der Betonmauer ist hier so unwahrscheinlich, dass man es in Zahlen fast nicht ausdrücken kann. Die Basis des Bauwerks ist ca. 200 m dick. Die Hochwasserentlastungen sind seit 1936 überhaupt erst einmal angesprungen.

Ah, das habe ich nicht gewusst.

200m hört sich wirklich sicher an. Kaum fassbare Mengen an Beton, die da transportiert werden mussten.

Actually, the dam was at risk when the reservoir was first filling, because the "grout curtain", injected into the bedrock below the dam before construction and intended to forestall leakage, turned out to be seriously inadequate. There was a _lot_ more leakage around the dam than had been expected, and the rock under the dam was swelling due to all the water it was absorbing. That was putting pressure beneath the dam and could have led to structural failure. There was a huge effort beginning in the late 30s and lasting into the late 40s to extend the grout curtain. It was very difficult because drilling into the bedrock below from _inside_ the dam, from the inspection galleries, was in extremely cramped conditions. The effort succeeded--the leakage dwindled and the swelling subsided--but it apparently was much more touch-and-go than reports at the time indicated. Furthermore, the failure of St. Francis Dam in southern California in the late 20s--still AFAIK the most catastrophic in the US--was fresh in everyones' minds. This whole retrofit is _not_ mentioned in most popular accounts of the construction! I found out about it from Hiltzik's _American Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century (2010).

Thanks for the very, very interesting background history. Didn't know anything about it.

► Hier mein Bild.
► Und das ist unser Guide Fred, von dem ich oben berichtete. :-)