leviticus.me

So for those of you who don’t know, I traveled to Las Vegas a few weeks ago. The major point of the trip was to set up a photo/ data collection process for the company I work for and a partner, but I managed to take some time for myself while I was there too.

After getting out of one of the most annoying airports ever (McCarran International is awful – seriously, people complain about Hartsfield?! It should be respected as the well oiled machine that it is.) – it took two hours to not get my luggage and get in a rental car to drive away from this place.

So, we (I went with a co-worker) immediately met a local co-worker and went to the Hoover Dam! I’m such a dork for this being my first stop out of the gate in Las Vegas (well, except for an Indian restaurant that we had lunch at), but I don’t care.
Here’s a cool pan of the leg of Lake Mead that meets the Hoover Dam (The white walls of the canyon note the normal lake level – they’re in a pretty severe drought.) CLICK ON THIS PICTURE

We piddled around the top of the damn for a while and then went inside the visitors center just in time for the last tour. WHEW!

One educational movie later and we were in an elevator down to the tunnels inside the dam.

We were escorted to a room that was suspended over one of the penstock tubes (where the water actually gets diverted around the dam to the generators).

Apparently the room serves as a fallout shelter as well.

After that we went one floor up/down (can’t remember) to a long pathway that led us to the actual generator room (the one you always see on TV.) Only the very tops of the generator/impellors are visible in this room, but it’s still incredibly impressive.

One of the facts that I found most interesting was that the floors of all the facilities at the dam are terazzo. (pieces of marble in a cement slurry, poured into a metal gridwork on the floor, then sanded and buffed to a finish) Apparently the whole of it was done back in the day (by two Italian brothers and 30 workmen) for 52 thousand dollars and the job would START for 3 million today.

Once we returned to the surface, it was to the observation deck which had some of the best views of the dam.

Like I said, Some of the best views: CLICK ON THIS PICTURE

As well as views of the new bridge being constructed to move traffic off the top of the dam. (It’s two years behind schedule; the dam was completed two years ahead of schedule.) CLICK ON THIS PICTURE

So that was my little trip to the Hoover Dam. Such an amazing structure.