I took this shot departing LAS one afternoon of Hoover Dam and Lake Mead as we climbed eastward towards DTW on the TRALR TWO SID. It inspired me enough to get on a bus and visit the dam on a subsequent layover. I'm not much of a fan of Las Vegas and "the strip", but the surrounding area is spectacular. The area that you see where the dam is located is called Black Canyon and the dam has been known over the years as both the Boulder Dam and Hoover Dam. As you might imagine, politics have had much to do with this. Oh, and that white stripe that you see is the Lake Mead, 1983 high water mark. According to our tour guide, there's something in the Colorado River water, that bleaches out whatever is in prolonged contact. Lake Mead, the second largest man made lake in the country, is named after Elwood Mead, who oversaw the construction of the dam.
For just $23.00, I jumped on a tour bus and enjoyed a spirited, narrated, 45 minute/30 mile drive through Boulder and Henderson, NV to the Hoover Dam. We drove across the top of the dam on route 93 into Arizona where I took this picture. Midway across the dam, not only do you pass from Nevada into Arizona, but you change time zones from Mountain to Pacific as well. This was a "no frills" tour aboard a rather comfortable bus, but only allowed us an hour and a half on site.
Just in case you've forgotten where we are.
For an additional $11.00, I purchased a tour that descended into the dam and brought us into the power generation room. These are several of the 17 turbine-generators that produce as much as 2,074 megawatts of hydo-electric power. Unfortunately, I suppose due to 9/11, they no longer bring you out to the base of the dam where you could once enjoy an unprecidented view skyward. For this reason, I'd skip the generator tour as it was time consuming and and limited my time in the museum and observation tower. There was a lot of waiting in lines.
There's a ton of information on the internet about the dam, so I won't even begin to try to recite it here, but here are some interesting facts. It was built from 1931 to 1936 and came in UNDER budget at $49 million. Apparently not the same people who oversaw the Big Dig in Boston! Interestingly though, one of the company's, Bechtel Company, was involved with the Big Dig. Six companies combined to build the dam. One of them, Morrison-Knudsen of Boise, ID, owned the DC-3 that appears later in my blog, painted in a Northeast Airlines paint scheme. Why six companies? Because individually, none could afford the bond paid to the government gauranteeing completion. 96 people died during construction, but listen to this. The first was surveyor J.G. Tierney. And the last, exactly 13 years to the day later, was his son Patrick Tierney. You're looking at more than 4 million yards of concrete here...that's still curing!
We're looking down from the top of the dam, (726 feet) towards the Colorado River and the "switch-yard" or powerlines that distribute the electrical power, the lions share of which goes to the Metropolitan Water Commission of Southern California. Hold on a second.... OK, I'm back. The kid next to me just fell over the top of the dam and I had to pull him back. I wonder where his parents are?
There are several of these towers. This is where water enters that is directed towards the turbine-generators. The exteriors were disigned by LA architect Gordon Kaufmann who gave them their art-deco appearance.
We're inside the museum now, but I'm forced to rush through in order to catch my bus back to Las Vegas. If anyone ever visits the museum, let me know your impression.
And, later that night as we taxi out to runway 25R in LAS to fly the redeye back to DTW. An old America West paint scheme is in front of us as well as a USAirways aircraft. Even though it's nearly midnight, look at the line up inbound to 25L. Now, before you criticize the America West pilot for being off the yellow line, he or she is simply trying to avoid the green taxi lights that go "thump, thump, thump as you go over them.
I took this shot departing LAS one afternoon of Hoover Dam and Lake Mead as we climbed eastward towards DTW on the TRALR TWO SID. It inspired me enough to get on a bus and visit the dam on a subsequent layover. I'm not much of a fan of Las Vegas and "the strip", but the surrounding area is spectacular. The area that you see where the dam is located is called Black Canyon and the dam has been known over the years as both the Boulder Dam and Hoover Dam. As you might imagine, politics have had much to do with this. Oh, and that white stripe that you see is the Lake Mead, 1983 high water mark. According to our tour guide, there's something in the Colorado River water, that bleaches out whatever is in prolonged contact. Lake Mead, the second largest man made lake in the country, is named after Elwood Mead, who oversaw the construction of the dam. 
For just $23.00, I jumped on a tour bus and enjoyed a spirited, narrated, 45 minute/30 mile drive through Boulder and Henderson, NV to the Hoover Dam. We drove across the top of the dam on route 93 into Arizona where I took this picture. Midway across the dam, not only do you pass from Nevada into Arizona, but you change time zones from Mountain to Pacific as well. This was a "no frills" tour aboard a rather comfortable bus, but only allowed us an hour and a half on site. 
Just in case you've forgotten where we are.
For an additional $11.00, I purchased a tour that descended into the dam and brought us into the power generation room. These are several of the 17 turbine-generators that produce as much as 2,074 megawatts of hydo-electric power. Unfortunately, I suppose due to 9/11, they no longer bring you out to the base of the dam where you could once enjoy an unprecidented view skyward. For this reason, I'd skip the generator tour as it was time consuming and and limited my time in the museum and observation tower. There was a lot of waiting in lines.
There's a ton of information on the internet about the dam, so I won't even begin to try to recite it here, but here are some interesting facts. It was built from 1931 to 1936 and came in UNDER budget at $49 million. Apparently not the same people who oversaw the Big Dig in Boston! Interestingly though, one of the company's, Bechtel Company, was involved with the Big Dig. Six companies combined to build the dam. One of them, Morrison-Knudsen of Boise, ID, owned the DC-3 that appears later in my blog, painted in a Northeast Airlines paint scheme. Why six companies? Because individually, none could afford the bond paid to the government gauranteeing completion. 96 people died during construction, but listen to this. The first was surveyor J.G. Tierney. And the last, exactly 13 years to the day later, was his son Patrick Tierney. You're looking at more than 4 million yards of concrete here...that's still curing!
We're looking down from the top of the dam, (726 feet) towards the Colorado River and the "switch-yard" or powerlines that distribute the electrical power, the lions share of which goes to the Metropolitan Water Commission of Southern California. Hold on a second.... OK, I'm back. The kid next to me just fell over the top of the dam and I had to pull him back. I wonder where his parents are? 
There are several of these towers. This is where water enters that is directed towards the turbine-generators. The exteriors were disigned by LA architect Gordon Kaufmann who gave them their art-deco appearance. 
We're inside the museum now, but I'm forced to rush through in order to catch my bus back to Las Vegas. If anyone ever visits the museum, let me know your impression.
And, later that night as we taxi out to runway 25R in LAS to fly the redeye back to DTW. An old America West paint scheme is in front of us as well as a USAirways aircraft. Even though it's nearly midnight, look at the line up inbound to 25L. Now, before you criticize the America West pilot for being off the yellow line, he or she is simply trying to avoid the green taxi lights that go "thump, thump, thump as you go over them.
5 comments:
Yes, I have been to Hoover Dam and taken the tour, twice: once as a child and once as an adult. My Grandfather was an engineer for Los Angeles Water and Power, and designed much of the electical power lines that eminate form the behemoth structure and feeds both Vegas and LA. YEs, it is worth the wait to take the tour inside the dam.
It is very interesting reading your blog. I'm a junior in high school and thinking about going for aviation. Reading your blog makes me want to do it more.
Seth
St Paul, MN
Hello Seth,
Thanks for your thoughts, I do seem to have a good time don't I? But there's a lot more to it, so investigate the field thouroughly before making any long term decisions.
Rand
Hello Rand,
One thing I have noticed when researching aviation programs, is there is no rating of programs with US News or any of the college books. It would be helpful to hear which schools that you would rate top five by who the airlines hire. This is more a question that I should post on your website. What is one main thing (negative) people don't realize about being a pilot as far as the job is concerned? Thanks!!
Seth
St Paul
I'm pretty far removed from this at this point Seth, but the schools that I've noticed the most are Univ of North Dakota, Daniel Webster in Nashua, NH and of course Embry Riddle in Florida. Many airlines have intern programs at the college level, usually in the junior year, but these are wonderful tools to learn about airline careers. With regard to your other question... they don't enjoy the pure pleasure of flight, the reason MOST of us were attracted to the field to begin with.
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