BBC Seven Wonders Of The Industrial World
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The Canyon Lands of the south western United States.
One of the harshest environments on earth.
Cutting through them an open wound in the side of the planet-the Colorado River.
The riding Colorado River has never been tamed in 12 million years.
lt hasn`t been done... yet.
For Frank Crowe this is the challenge he has been waiting for.
Fire in the hole.
The plan to build a dam and transform
the desert with water and electricity for millions.
lt will take four miles of tunnels blasted through dense volcanic rock.
The Hoover damn with stand larger than the great pyramids of Egypt.
But its construction will not come without sacrifice.
This is a brutal environment out here.
Nobody said it was going to be easy.
We`re losing three men a week right now.
They can`t breath, we`re being suffocated.
lt all rests of absolute speed and efficiency.
There`s pushing and there`s pushing.
We are well within our safety margin.
You`re sailing dangerously close.
l can`t afford to slow.
A ruthless genius- Frank Crowe plays by his own rules
and it will take all his powers to tame the Colorado.
l`m wild to build that dam.
Frank Crowe is traveling up the Colorado
to inspect the future site of the Hoover Dam for the first time.
l`ve spent my 27-year career at river bottoms.
l guess you might say it`s in my blood.
Working for the America government is chief engineer Walker Brig-Young.
His brief is to design a dam
that will create cities and farmland in the arid desert.
This is the most ambitious government sponsored
engineering project ever undertaken in the US.
And we er, we scoured a hundred miles of this river
looking for exactly the right spot.
These men are two of the most experienced dam builders in the world.
But a dam as high as a mountain
that will create a lake a hundred miles long has never been attempted.
There is no margin for error.
These walls are made of dense volcanic rock.
Pretty strong enough to absorb the pressure
that the massive body of the dam will exert on them
and free of tell-tale fault lines which could indicate a risk of earthquakes.
Crowe has built six dams in his career but nothing on this scale.
l guess l must have seen it on paper a hundred times but never up close.
And it`s going to stand right here.
The Lord put this site here and it was only up to man to discover and use it.
What l`ve got to do is plug the gap,
harness the river`s power and not get swept away in the process.
The threat from the Colorado river is terrifying.
Fed by run off from the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains,
it has swept away all previous attempts to tame it.
lt has wiped out entire settlements and killed thousands.
Many believe that damming
this unpredictable force of nature is impossible and reckless.
Mr. Crowe, some have speculated that the weight of the water mass
behind the finished dam could actually weaken the earth`s crust,
even affect the planet`s orbit.
Well what do you say to those who insist that it simply cannot be done?
Well it`s just a dam, but it`s a damn big dam.
March 1931 - the work starts.
To win the bid to build the Hoover dam,
Crowe and the building contractors have agreed
to a series of punishing government deadlines
and this in spite of the complexity of the design.
Now ours is a er, an arch gravity dam.
The arched shape allows the structure to flex
as it absorbs the tremendous force of the water
building up behind it and in flexing,
push against the canyon walls to transfer that load into the sold rock
while the gravity of its tremendous mass is pushing
against the bed rock of the river bed
and these forces combined lock the dam in position.
All this is to be built right in the middle of nowhere.
Before they can even start on the dam they must first build a route into the canyon.
The government has laid 33 miles of rail road out from Las Vegas
so now were forging an access route through these side canyons,
right down to the dam side, and a hundred feet below.
This will enable me to move millions of tons
of materials right down to the river`s edge.
For Crowe, speed is everything.
Over run a deadline and he`ll incur huge financial penalties.
He will have to work the men through the night
and for that he will need electric light.
Lots of it.
June 25th right? Get power down here by June 25th.
Great.
Getting power out here will be the single determining factor
in getting construction underway on a big scale.
Only then can we really start highballing.
l do not intend to lose a day`s time anywhere along the line.
This is typical of Frank.
His personal maxim is never my belly through a desk,
and he doesn`t want to hear about what`s going on, he wants to see it.
Anything goes wrong well he`s there to get an eye on it and fix it.
Frank er, well Frank likes to push hard.
The chief engineer also knows that Crowe can push too hard.
There are big financial rewards for getting ahead of schedule.
lt will be Brig Young`s job to ensure that Crowe doesn`t take dangerous short cuts.
Brig calls me hurry up Crowe, so l call him the great delayer.
Brig and l go back 20 years we were there at rock dam.
Er we were both involved on this project from day one,
l have a lot of respect for the man.
He thinks l`m a little reckless sometimes but the bottom line is
l want direct access to the river`s edge one month from now.
lt`s the depths of the Great Depression.
One in five of the working population is out of a job.
Men desperate for work are flocked
from all over the country to apply for the 3000 jobs.
President Hoover is funding construction of the dam
as part of his new deal to stimulate the economy.
Everybody`s hungry.
These men have wives, children to feed.
You know depression or not, the construction of this dam is the best thing
that`s happened in decades, everybody wants a job.
l`m employed, l`m one of the lucky ones.
We had 2400 apply for work in person.
Another 1 2,000 in Britain.
l bet guys with PhD`s signed up for tunneling and then people
who are used to working on Wall Street are driving trucks.
We`re going to set us over the edge of the cliff to work 900 feet about the river.
High scaling they call it.
They said it will suit anybody who doesn`t have the brains enough to be scared.
Well for five dollars and sixty cents a day John here and l will try anything.
Those fellars can keep their sixty cents a day danger money, me,
l`m taking the straight five dollars and working on the main site.
For greater efficiency,
Crowe has workers transported down to the site in specially built trucks,
each capable of carrying 160 men at a time.
A 24 hour working day is split into three shifts.
The only holidays are the 4th July, Labor Day and Christmas Day, all unpaid.
Oh sure we know it`s going to rough out there, but hey, we`re making money now.
Before Crowe can even begin construction on the dam
he has a major obstacle to overcome, the Colorado River itself.
They will have to divert the river to build on its rock bed,
but the Colorado is flanked by high canyon walls.
The only option is to drill and blast four diversion tunnels,
two on each side of the canyon, as an alternative route for the river.
Tunneling on this scale has never been undertaken before.
He has just 24 months to complete four miles of tunnels
if he is to meet the first government deadline.
For every day we run over schedule,
we risk incurring fines of between two to three thousand dollars a day.
This is not an option.
Fire in the hole!
Spirits are high as the blast punctures the first hole in the canyon wall.
Work also begins on preparing the 900 for sheer canyon cliffs.
For just sixty cents a day extra, high scalers risk serious injury.
Using jack hammers, Crowbars and dynamite,
their job is to clear the cliff faces of loose material and rocky overhangs.
The walls on both sides of the canyons must be perfectly smooth
if the body of the finished damn is to get a secure hold.
We`re hanging 900 feet above the Colorado river,
building one of the greatest projects ever built in America.
Makes you excited about coming to work every day- you`re not sure
what`s going to happen.
To protect themselves, scalers are pioneered
the use of crude hard hats made from baseball caps dipped in tar.
His skull fractured by a large rock that struck him.
Jack Sykes, jack hammer man remained conscious
until he had been brought from the job this morning.
He died this afternoon.
Just three months in and Jack Sykes joins three men
who have already been killed on site.
Conditions are no better when men finish work for the day.
As few can afford rented accommodation,
shanty towns are going up around the dam site.
The most infamous of these is Rag Town.
They`re telling us that the population is nearing 1,000 out here.
That`s ungodly.
There`s very little clean water that we can find,
no sanitation and while my husband is at the dam
we`re out here with very very little natural shelter from the sun.
They`re recording temperatures of 120 degrees in the shade.
They lost three women to the heat in one day alone last week.
One was 28, three tents down from here.
Well l certainly am concerned by the conditions folks are facing out there.
These are proposed plans for boulder city.
Now as an agreed part of the dam contract,
the construction company is required to build a town
to provide satisfactory housing for those working on the dam.
lts construction is well under way
but it`s taking a little longer than anticipated.
An emergency in one of the diversion tunnels.
Temperatures inside the dense volcanic rock have hit 140 degrees.
Workers are almost cooking alive.
We`ve got this thing called the ice brigade,
so when the heat gets to a fellar, he`ll rush out and then they pack him in ice.
But even then it`s an hours drive from the hospital to Vegas.
Might get there dead- the bodies are all bloated- they`ve been hard-boiled.
ln June and July, one worker dies every two days.
Workers and their families are desperate.
Now they may have a voice for their grievances.
Frank Anderson,
union activist for the industrial workers of the world known as the wobblies.
Using a false identity to avoid detection he has infiltrated the site,
many are keen to hear his arguments for change.
Right gentlemen thank you all for coming to hear this today-
my name is Frank Anderson,
l work for the l.W.W. but most of you know me,
l work down there on the dam with you as well.
l`m a driver.
Anderson has to keep his activities secret.
Both government and contractors have outlawed unions on the Hoover dam project.
Unions?
Well certainly if we do hear about union presidency, it will be swiftly dealt with.
We`re providing the means to work here for thousands of people-
union agitating suits no one.
lt just stirs up trouble.
The way they`re treating us- we know it`s not fair
but we need to go to them with reasonable demands.
What are the things that we think is most important?
We need, er, better light shed and ventilation.
Ventilation.
That`s paramount for everybody.
We have lost two friends down there already.
Clean water. Clean water on the job.
Sanitation.
Er, adequate ventilation.
Clean water, decent housing and decent sanitation.
O.k.?
Now those four points right there it will cost the company $2000 a day to pause
and see that those requirements are met.
O.k.?
but it`s costing you the lives of friends and family.
And the quality of life
is going to do nothing but decline if we let them steam roll us like this.
On site work continues around the clock at a relentless pace.
Crowe`s prime concern is in diverting the course of the river as fast as possible,
worrying about work conditions is not his job.
Now the good news is the crews are making good progress in the tunnels.
Now here`s the main structure of the dam
that you see from above and the four diversion tunnels,
two on either side of the dam are complete, they`ll be 56 feet in diameter.
But that can`t be done,
they can`t be widened until the guide tunnels are dug first.
But as the men dig these narrow guide tunnels deeper inside the canyon wall,
conditions are growing worse by the day.
This is hell- no ventilation down here.
And they`re not getting enough water down to us either.
See that`s the stuff we want Mr. Crowe to take care of.
They can`t work without fresh air and clean water.
l need both!
We don`t know what we`re up against here, this is an unknown quantity,
the quicker we get this over the safer it will be for everybody.
A high scaler has fallen 700 feet to his death.
Forced to work around his body,
many workers see it as final proof of Crowe`s indifference.
Each of us watched him get thrown of each rocky ledge on the way down.
He`s been lying there for at least an hour.
When l got here l was told to just continue working.
lf Crowe had the chance he would put his mother up on that ledge.
As discontent grows, Anderson and the Wobblies are gaining more support.
What they`re giving us is not enough for everybody to live off of.
There`s rumours of a paycut,
where the wobblie`s want us to go on strike
and dictate to the bosses but l don`t know.
We need this work.
Frank Crowe is taking advantage of the depression
and a hungry work force to establish wage scales
that are just entirely unreasonable.
Alright?
Now it`s a crime to ask men to work in this ungodly heat
with barely enough to put food in their bellies and clothes on their backs.
Now it`s up to all of you to do something about this because no one else will.
We`ve got to get these demands in and he`s got to meet them.
Let`s strike.
Absolutely.
On August 7th, 1931 ,
1400 men downed tools, construction is at a standstill.
With plenty of unemployed ready to replace them, the strikers are risking everything.
Crowe is already 6 months ahead of schedule
and with big bonuses at stake he`s determined to keep it that way.
Did you know about this?
l was aware of some discontent Frank
but l think the way to deal with this is we wait to hear
what the demands are and then...
Responsible for policing the strike is chief of police, Glenn Bud Odell.
Hey Bud.
Morning gentleman.
Sit down.
Thank you sir.
Odell has a reputation for policing with a rod of iron.
There`s no way l`m going to compromise.
For every man on site
there`s another dozen in Rag Town and Vegas lining up for his job.
Well of course they`re not going to recognize this walk out,
that`s the wrong precedent.
l`m just saying
that l think a lot of the men are motivated by some genuine concern.
Water supplies, and ventilation could be better.
And the workers barely begun on the family housing.
The strikers seem well mannered enough.
Well, l`ve got men in the camps.
And what they´ve telling me there`s a definite suggestion
that the more radical of these wobblies, they`ll sabotage equipment if needs be.
Cutting airhoses.
Just one tactic our group suggested.
l want to ensure that every single striker gets whatever wages he`s owned
and gets the hell off the reservation.
Agreed.
l want this site clear so l can start re-hiring.
Odell and his marshals weed out their troublemakers and meet little resistance.
A mixture of intimidation, fear and an empty stomach forces the men
to accept lower wages in return for water coolers and completion of family housing.
ln just five days the strike is crushed.
lt`s unbelievable.
l mean they just ran all the people,
everyone off the reservation, l mean even out of Rag Town.
The company has no regard for the people
that are working for them and unfortunately try
as they might there`s nothing that we can do about it now.
Well the union is labeled us
and the management dictators and a few other things.
But as Mr Young rightly said, if we don`t take a stand,
this dam might be ten years being built and cost twice as much to finish.
l`m not going to let that happen.
lf you do your job, you obey the law, you don`t have a problem with us,
we don`t have a problem with you.
l think everybody`s going to be just fine.
With the union expelled, Crowe presses on, unhindered.
Get them out of here. Do not come back.
lf conditions in the tunnels were bad before,
they are about to get a whole lot worse.
lt`s October 1931 , down at the river`s edge Crowe throws every machine
he has into widening the four diversion tunnels.
So far the Colorado river has been docile.
But winter is fast approaching.
l can`t afford to slow.
lt`s the 24 month deadline to consider but there`s also the mood of the river.
The longer we take the more
we risk getting hit by floods caused by rain and snow melt.
One serious flood could wipe us out for months.
To speed up the operation Crowe commissions
a fleet of customized trucks christened Drill Jumbos.
Each has a 50 man crew who can excavate ten times faster than before.
Up to 45 feet per day.
At the peak of the excavations, 1500 men are working the tunnels day and night.
Everywhere men move fast.
Throwing the power of muscle into everything they day.
There is no gaiety about the scene.
By now the sheer nervous desire and ruthless hiring and firing policy
of the contracting organization leaves only the supremely efficient on the job.
With so much heavy machinery inside the tunnels,
heat exhaustion has been replaced by a more insidious enemy.
See there`s a hell of a lot of exhaust fumes down here
from all the trucks being used.
And that exhaust jus hangs in the air so you`re sucking it into your lungs.
lt gets really bad down here, it`s like trying to breath through wet cotton.
You can`t breath, you`re suffocating.
l came to work down here one night and there was 17 men with me,
and the next morning there was just me and three others.
All the rest had put down sick.
Workers are threatening to sue over carbon monoxide poisoning.
Crowe meets with the other company directors
and lawyers to consider their position.
The symptoms are so close together they can`t,
they don`t have any requests, no, no absolutely.
ln five minutes,
just your basic respiratory problems can be nothing that we did,
nothing that we have any liability for.
Absolutely right.
And we`re sure of that?
Absolutely.
As long as we stick to it we`ll be fine.
No we won`t be honoring any of these claims.
They are regrettable but completely satisfied
that those inflicted show all the classic symptoms of pneumonia
and our doctors will attest to this.
Obviously the company`s diagnosis of pneumonia,
if they admit it`s gas
they will be obligated to compensate all of the families.
There`s no proof
that these cases are in any way related to carbon monoxide poisoning.
l can`t say many of us are surprised.
They`re supposed to provide us with housing and we`re still here.
With legal action pending and broken promises over re-housing of workers,
Brig-Young decides he has to confront Crowe.
l`ve got to push you for completion of boulder city Frank.
We have to get workers with families into permanent clean accommodation.
Their welfare`s your responsibility Frank
and the completion of Boulder was a strike concession remember?
Crowe pushes ahead with the completion of family housing
with typical determination.
He orders carpenters to erect three houses every two days.
lf they fail they will be fired.
Spring, 1932.
With winter snow melts running off
the Rocky Mountains hundreds of miles up stream,
Crowe`s worst fears are realized.
Dug so close to river level, the tunnels were always at risk from flooding.
Gate station up river warned us that the river levels are rising,
we need to get out of here or we`re going to get flooded.
Come let`s move, go.
Millions of gallons of water rip through the dam site.
Rising 17 feet in just three hours.
The Colorado overwhelms the tunnel excavations.
We were exceptionally lucky.
This river is more than capable of flushing out the entire canyon
which is exactly the reason l`ve been tunneling so hard.
One more flood could not only kill men but wipe out the entire project.
The more we get behind, the more catching up we`ll have to do.
Laid off without pay while the flood subsides,
the workers spend their time in bars like Rail Road Pass.
The union may have been dispelled but the discontent remains.
lt`s rough, real rough.
l mean you got a lot of men working in this confined space
and they just keep pushing us see and that`s a problem.
Heat, gas,
hurry up Crowe could do with showing some decency and slowing down a little.
l tell you, this whole poisoning gas in the tunnels thing it`s er,
getting a lot of people bitter.
l know some of the boys who were laid off
because of sickness are talking to lawyers about conditions in the tunnel.
They blame it on pneumonia, it`s poisonous gases that we`re working with.
Word gets around that our lives aren`t worth, aren`t worth,
l was going to say something but l`m not going to say it.
But you know what l`m trying to tell you?
The pass and places like it are a welcome relief of the damsite
There will be no gambling,
prostitution or liquor in Walker Young`s vision of the new Boulder City.
The project to dam the Colorado River has aroused
the interest of the people of the United States more than any other.
With that the government feels that the entire reservation and everything on it,
including Boulder City should stand as a suitable example.
You can`t get a drink here but Crowe`s drive in just six months,
provided housing for 658 families.
Well it might not look like much
but compared to Rag Town this is a little piece of heaven.
lt`s still hot s we`ve taken to hanging these wet sheets in the doorway
so that when it billows it cools the air.
lt`s basic but for the first time in a long time
l really see a future for us so we`ll make it work.
lt`s fully self-contained,
we have four churches and a school and er, other civic amenities.
Right from the start we envisioned Boulder City
as a model community something to aspire to.
Workers who move into the new houses, have rent docked from their pay cheques.
Twenty five cents of every dollar
they earn goes back into the coffers of the company.
By the fall of 1932,
the drill jumbo crews have widened the diversion tunnels to 56 feet.
The mammoth task of lining them with concrete is also drawing to a close.
For Crowe the big moment has arrived.
Now he can be the first man ever to control the course of the Colorado.
We`re dealing with extremes in environment.
The mighty Colorado river has never been tamed in 12 million years.
We tried it at the turn of the century and it didn`t work
so that`s what we`re up against.
lt hasn`t been done... yet.
On November 13th
temporary barriers built to keep water out of the two eastern tunnels are blown,
the river flows freely into them for the first time.
Almost immediately trucks begin to dump loose rock
in the path of the river blocking it`s natural course through the river.
Ton after ton, hour after hour.
Less than 24 hours later, the Colorado has lost its freedom.
The diversion is a complete success.
Crowe has exposed a river bed where the body of the dam will stand,
almost a year ahead of schedule.
Despite being so far ahead, hurry up Crowe has no intention of easing the pace.
Here`s the canyon.
Now either side going through the rock walls
we have the four long diversion tunnels.
Now we`ve poured hundreds and thousands of tons of rocks
to build temporary copper dams upstream here and downstream here,
to completely seal the side from the river either end.
Now all we have to do is plug the gap
with the largest mass of concrete ever created.
By mid June 1933,
plants erected near the dam site are producing a constant stream of concrete.
To win the bid for the dam`s construction Crowe has pledged
that he can produce and pour concrete more efficiently than any of his competitors.
Key to the success is his revolutionary delivery system.
lt all rests on absolute speed and efficiency.
ln order to achieve our targets it`s imperative
that we have the means to move concrete any time at a moments notice.
Now, it takes too much time to go around so we have to go over.
And of that, Crowe is the master.
Pioneered on earlier projects, his aerial cable weighs have revolutionized
the movement of men and materials on construction sites.
Criss-crossing the canyon they will be essential,
an uninterrupted flow of concrete.
The government has given Crowe four and a half years to complete the concreting,
but just as with the excavation of the diversion tunnels,
he has every intention of creating sooner.
A major obstacle to this is the speed
at which such a huge body of concrete can be safely pours.
As it curs concrete generates heat.
Overheating would spell disaster.
No one has poured a body of concrete this size before.
The key is to ensure than the concrete is poured evenly
and given enough time to cool.
You try to rush the process,
why the concrete could overheat and cause cracking and complete structural failure.
The idea of the dam collapsing is unthinkable,
so it must be cast in box forms to a depth not exceeded five feet every three days.
lf you were to pour the whole body of this dam in one big monolithic mass
it would take 125 years to cool down.
l mean 125 years.
To speed the cooling process,
giant refrigeration plants pump ice cold water
through pipes laid in the fresh concrete,
but nothing is fast enough for hurry up Crowe.
Super intendants here, look lively.
Oh watch your back.
Hello fellas.
Boss on site.
No carry on, carry on, carry on.
You know Riley`s boxes are working much quicker.
Yeah?
Yeah l got to tell you.
Regularly visiting the site to encourage competition
between crews Crowe is in danger of exceeding
the strict engineering guidelines.
ln one 24 hour period last week the combined crews poured a bucket a minute.
They can`t pour much faster than that.
By fostering competition Crowe is not only pushing his luck
but risking the entire project.
A concrete place at any one column should not exceed a depth of one five foot box
in a period of three days.
Any more and you risk internal stresses and cracking
as he mixture cools and contracts.
No l think a bit of friendly rivalry between the crews is a good thing.
Ups the work rate, the workers are motivated, everyone goes home happy.
There`s pushing and there`s pushing Frank.
lt`s just a bit of stirred up competition Brig,
take it easy we`re well within our safety margain.
You`re sailing dangerously close.
Not you`re over a year ahead of schedule, pushing the tunnels was one thing,
now you can afford to back off a bit.
What`s wrong with a bit of healthy competition?
Well you`re exceeding the specifications for concrete placement out there.
Pushing engineering guidelines is not the only thing Crowe is being accused of.
Claims of carbon monoxide poisoning have come to trial.
Five men are claiming they were poisoned by exhaust fumes in the diversion tunnels.
lf they`re successful
Crowe and the contractors could face a flood of similar claims.
The costs would be crippling.
The first case is that of Ed Kraus.
Company doctors refute his claim.
l certainly have no reason to doubt that Mr Kraus is a sick man.
Shortness of breath, loss of strength and nausea, lots of nausea.
l am totally confident
that the symptoms Mr Kraus exhibits and those exhibited by others
who`ve filed claims are consistent with either pneumonia or influenza.
There is no proof
that carbon monoxide poisoning caused illness in any case l`ve seen.
l`ve always been a healthy man.
l have a young family
but l`d like to state that the illness has affected my marriage also.
Since getting sick my matrimonial duties have suffered.
Look all l know is that
since working in the tunnels illness has prevented me from providing for my family.
Kraus`s fellow workers feel that he has performed well on the witness stand.
He has no shortage of support.
l don`t think we owe this company anything.
We all saw the conditions.
lt seems to me we have a good case here.
At last the company has everything to lose.
Determined to discredit Kraus
they set him up with a prostitute to test his claims of impotence.
On January 7th, 1943, Frank Crowe and Brig Young
celebrate the pouring of the 1 millionth cubic yard of concrete.
With an increased sense of urgency to complete,
Crowe ups the work force to a record 5,251 men.
ln just 6 months they poured the 3 millionth cubic yard of concrete.
Can we get everybody to settle down?
Thank you.
Ed Kraus`s case against Crowe and the contractors has reached a critical stage.
The company has new and devastating evidence to bring before the court.
Your honour, since the beginning of this hearing,
certain evidence has come to our attention that brings the honesty
and the reliability of the key claimant Mr Ed Kraus into question.
ln certain social situations,
l`ve heard Mr Kraus bragging about being happy to exaggerate his condition.
We`ve also gathered testimony
that Mr Kraus`s claims of reduced sexual performance are unfounded.
Well let`s just say that he seems to perform admirably
whenever l`ve had the pleasure of his company.
They pulled Kraus`s character to pieces in there.
The jury weren`t able to agree so the judge has declared a mis-trial.
For Crowe it`s back to business as usual.
The workers leave with nothing.
lt was expected that construction on this scale would cause some deaths.
The question was always how many.
Just weeks from completion a box form has collapsed burying a worker alive
under a deluge of setting concrete.
Er, Mr Crowe was down here when the form actually collapsed and buried the fellar.
So he took charge in getting him out.
Just cut it away nice and easy.
And that guy`s been buried for hours and the concretes started to set so.
l mean they got down to one of his hands but... he`s gone.
But Mr Crowe insisted that they treat him with dignity and care and you know,
they could have ploughed right in there with jackhammers,
but they were working around him with little picks to get him out.
The final death toll is 107 men.
Many wonder if such a loss of life can ever be justified to build a dam.
By February 1st, 1935,
the 700 foot high body of the dam is all but complete.
Just two years after being diverted
the power of the Colorado can now be harnessed.
900 ton steel doors over the mouth of each diversion tunnel begin to close.
With the diversion tunnels sealed,
the water slowly backs up behind the dam to create Lake Mead;
the biggest man made lake in America.
At last the time is at hand to turn this vast water supply into energy.
Just imagine it, it`s a, it`s an awe-inspiring feet of engineering.
lt will stand as a testimony to the ingenuity of an entire nation.
As the funneled waters of the Colorado spin the dam`s turbines,
its immense generators turn producing
millions of watts of hydro electricity for the entire south west of America.
Look at that thing huh?
l built it. l surely did.
As for Frank Crowe, his organizational genius at overseeing
the building of world`s largest damn and delivered it a whole two years one month
and twenty eight days ahead of schedule.
There`s something peculiarly satisfying about building such a great dam
because you know that what you build is going to stand for centuries.
Crowe walked away with his reputation assured
and a bonus in today`s money of $4 million.
l`ll be looking for the next one real soon.
Today fifty million people across seven states benefit from the Hoover dam.
Where once there was desert now there is civilization.
Created by the men who built one of the true wonders of the industrial world.
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