The Hoover Dam gets its name from the country’s 31st President Herbert Hoover who was supporting the project long before he became the President. It was, in fact, during his stint as the Secretary of Commerce that Hoover began developing a plan that would tame the unruly Colorado River and provide necessary electricity and irrigation to the peoples of Southern California, Nevada, and Arizona. It culminated in the legislation called the Boulder Canyon Project Act that was passed in 1928. Hoover Dam’s measurements are mind blowing, especially for the early 1930s. Workers used 4,360,000 cubic yards of pure concrete in its construction, making the dam the first edifice to contain more masonry than Egypt’s Great Pyramids. The dam itself now ranks in as the 18th highest dam in the world, standing 726.4 feet tall and measuring 1,244 feet wide at the top of the structure. The dam weighs an estimated 6.6 million tons!

In addition to the production of power and irrigation measures for the Southwest, Hoover Dam also created a fantastic body of water, Lake Mead. A whopping 146,000 acres, Lake Mead is a fantastic destination that is visited by flocks of individuals each year. The warm Nevada sunshine graces the lake that is situated a few miles from Sin City itself, Las Vegas. If you are interested in visiting Hoover Dam, be sure to check out the visitor’s center and take a behind the scenes tour. Completed in the mid-1990s, the visitor’s center is interactive and full of information about the building and purpose of the dam. If you plan on going on a walking tour, be sure to bring your walking shoes, as you will walk across the very top of the dam itself.