Las Vegas: Hoover Dam

Instead of wasting our day in Vegas gambling we decided to go on a little trip to one of the greatest feats of modern engineering, the Hoover dam. It was pretty fantastic, even though i spent half my time terrified due to the bloody big drop.

Here is a view of the artificial lake, Lake Mead, that was formed when built the dam. This was taken from Boulder City, NV. Which is the only place in Nevada that you can't gamble.

Here is the beast. Obviously not taken by me as I was too scared.

Another view of Lake Mead. The white line is the salt deposit from the highest flood. It didnt go over the dam itself but I bet it was bloody scary.

I actually managed to do the power plant tour. This involved descending about 500 ft in 70 seconds in a lift. It was surprisingly smooth. They are absolutely massive (ca. 300 tonnes)

Here is the outside of the power station. Again not taken by me.


I love these water inlet towers. A really classic art deco design and they do look so cool close up.

Here is a new highway bridge they are building. It looks totally insane, but I bet you are gonna get a fantastic view. You can actually drive across the dam at the moment, which wasn't that scary.

Here is the dam from the Arizona side. You can see the crazy power lines. Also how they actually made a good job of the visitors center. It was refreshing not to see people selling tat.