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On this day in 1930, construction began on the Hoover Dam on the state border of Arizona and Nevada
July 7, 2022
On this day in 1930, construction began on the Hoover Dam on the state border of Arizona and Nevada. For its time, it was the tallest dam in the world and provided essential flood control, as well as the expansion of irrigated farming in the desert. The dam also created America’s largest reservoir, Lake Mead. Today, it helps power communities in three states: Arizona, Nevada, and California.
Did you know? As Secretary of Commerce in the early 1920s, future president Herbert Hoover was a staunch supporter of the project. Shortly after ground was broken in 1930, the Secretary of the Interior claimed the dam would be named for Hoover, but the president’s lack of popularity during the Great Depression left it without an official name. Alternatively called “the Hoover Dam” and “the Boulder Dam,” it was not officially named the Hoover Dam until 1947.
Downstream face of Boulder Dam, Smith & Chandler, c. 1930-1945
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