Hoover Dam

26 March 2024

Routes 68 & 163 are two sides of the triangle from Kingman to Boulder City and the Hoover Dam. Excellent but anonymous roads, fifty miles of perfectly surfaced, deserted four-lane highway with curves that can be taken at pace is worth the detour.

The Hoover Dam is a major tourist attraction and you can still drive over it, although it has been closed to through traffic since a new section of I-93 was completed in 2010. With the interstate came, the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge,  spanning the gorge over the Colorado River with a drop of some 890 feet.

The view from the walkway is simultaneously thrilling and terrifying. Any latent vertigo tendencies will be brought to the fore. There are a couple of people pushing through the throng who appear to have self-diagnosed themselves. Visibly distressed, they clearly need to get off the bridge as soon as possible.

Traffic approaching the dam is heavy. The many free car parks are inadequate to meet the demand, although $10 for the chargeable option solves this problem. The dam itself is magnificent from any angle and any distance. The art-deco architecture is both graceful and elegant but with a 1000-year permanence about it.

I try to book on the tour but it is sold out for the day and advised to visit early. So that’s the plan for later in the week. But first there is Las Vegas…

28 March 2024

Returning at 10:00 on Thursday, I’m in luck as there is one place left on the 11:30 tour. I’m glad I came back as it is a fascinating hour. Superbly choreographed, with guides at once supremely knowledgeable, articulate and theatric, the tour takes you into the heart of the dam and the power plant room itself at the foot where a series of nine generators from 1930s are operating. This is no museum: it’s the major source of electricity for the region and has been since it opened nearly 100 years ago.

Every fixture is preserved where possible and is subject to a rigorous, continual maintenance program. New technology is introduced only when it can be integrated into the original design.

All other details have been obsessed over, and executed to the highest possible standard. Every mosaic, light fitting, door handle and even the copper cable trunking and clips along the tunnel walls has a history and the guides can’t be wrong-footed on any of it.

Go if you get the chance: it’s an hour’s drive from Las Vegas. Leave early and be there by 09:30 to be first in line though.