Hoover Dam

About the Book

In 1930, with the country suffering through the worst depression in its history, President Herbert Hoover shepherded a project through congress to build what was known then as “Boulder Dam.” Jobs would be provided for 4,000 men and America would have an icon to champion. The dam would be twice as high as the next largest in the world! A lake, a hundred miles long and five hundred feet deep, would back up against the dam   The site was thirty miles south of a small desert town, called Las Vegas. Not only would railroad lines have to be built to the site to carry in supplies, but two concrete mixing plants and a huge pipe foundry would have to be constructed. Four tunnels, each a mile long, would have to be bored through the cliffs, to divert the river around the site, while the dam was being built. Over three million cubic yards of concrete would be poured.   By the time hiring started in 1931, tents holding anxious aspirants and, frequently, wives and children, lined the whole thirty-mile stretch from Las Vegas to the site. A new community, Boulder City, would be built to house workers and their families but this would be a year down the road.   Living and working under appalling conditions - temperatures reached 130° and there was no air conditioning - the men, helped no end by their wives and girl friends, raised the dam in four years, three years ahead of schedule.   Hoover Dam is a fictionalized biography of the brave people, who built this tribute to mankind.

About the Author

Harry Birchard, a retired CPA, lives in Pennsylvania with his wife, Sylvia. They have three married children and nine grandchildren. A post-retirement auto tour, led him to Hoover Dam, and he had the subject for his first book, a fictionalized biography of the brave people who built this marvelous structure.