radiomuseum.org
Please click your language flag. Bitte Sprachflagge klicken.
 

Hoover Dam Visitor Center

89005 Boulder City, NV, United States of America (USA) (Nevada)

Address
 
 
Floor area unfortunately not known yet  
 
Museum typ Exhibition
Electric motors/generators/pumps
  • Historic Engineering Landmarks


Opening times
9am - 6pm; First Powerplant Tour departs at 9:25am

Admission
Status from 04/2017
Powerplant Tour (30-min): Adults (ages 17-61): $15; Seniors, Juniors (ages 4-16), U.S. Military: $12
Hoover Dam Tour (1-hour): $30

Contact
Tel.:+1-702-494-25 17  eMail:cdwyer usbr.gov  

Homepage www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam

Our page for Hoover Dam Visitor Center in Boulder City, United States of America (USA), is not yet administrated by a Radiomuseum.org member. Please write to us about your experience with this museum, for corrections of our data or sending photos by using the Contact Form to the Museum Finder.

Location / Directions
N36.016205° W114.739428°N36°0.97230' W114°44.36568'N36°0'58.3380" W114°44'21.9408"

Hoover Dam is located approximately 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas, on the Nevada-Arizona border. The Dam does not have a street address, so directions are provided below.

from Las Vegas

About 30 miles/45 minutes
Take US Highway 93 South and continue about 20 miles to Boulder City
In Boulder City, take a left at the second stoplight in town (there are only 2 of them)
Continue on US 93 for about 5 miles (just past the Hacienda Hotel) to the turn-off to Nevada State Route 172 - the Hoover Dam Access Road
Take NV SR 172 for about 2 miles to the Dam on the Nevada/Arizona border
(Note: Visitors who wish to continue travel into Arizona must re-enter Nevada and access Highway 93 to cross the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge; the roadway across Hoover Dam is no longer open to through-traffic.)

Traffic Advisory: Motorists can expect periodic delays on Highway 93, especially during holiday travel times. Also, all vehicles are required to undergo a security inspection prior to crossing the dam. See our publication "Visiting Hoover Dam: A Traveler's Guide" (Adobe Acrobat file - 45 KB) for more information.

Parking at the Dam

A 459-space parking garage is located on the Nevada side of the dam set into a canyon across the road from the Visitor Center. The parking garage charges a $7.00 fee.

Upon Arrival at the Visitor Center

From the parking garage, walk toward the dam. A short distance from the garage you will find both an escalator and elevator that will take you down to a reception lobby where you can purchase your tickets.

Description

The Story of Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam is a testimony to a country's ability to construct monolithic projects in the midst of adverse conditions. Built during the Depression; thousands of men and their families came to Black Canyon to tame the Colorado River. It took less than five years, in a harsh and barren land, to build the largest dam of its time. Now, years later, Hoover Dam still stands as a world-renowned structure. The Dam is a National Historic Landmark and has been rated by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of America's Seven Modern Civil Engineering Wonders.

In the latter half of 1936, water levels in Lake Mead were high enough to permit power generation, and the first three Francis turbine-generators, all on the Nevada side, began operating. In March 1937, one more Nevada generator went online and the first Arizona generator by August. By September 1939, four more generators were operating and the dam's power plant became the largest hydroelectricity facility in the world. The final generator was not placed in service until 1961, bringing the maximum generating capacity to 1345 megawatts at the time. Original plans called for 16 large generators, eight on each side of the river, but two smaller generators were installed instead of one large one on the Arizona side for a total of 17. The smaller generators were used to serve smaller municipalities at a time when the output of each generator was dedicated to a single municipality, before the dam's total power output was placed on the grid and made arbitrarily distributable.

Following an uprating project from 1986 to 1993, the total gross power rating for the plant, including two 2.4 megawatt Pelton turbine-generators that power Hoover Dam's own operations is a maximum capacity of 2080 megawatts

Before water from Lake Mead reaches the turbines, it enters the intake towers and enters four gradually narrowing penstocks which funnel the water down towards the powerhouse. The intakes provide a maximum hydraulic head (water pressure) of 590 ft (180 m) as the water reaches a speed of about 85 mph (140 km/h). The entire flow of the Colorado River passes through the turbines.
 

Hoover Dam Historical Collection

The Bureau of Reclamation maintains a collection of museum items, historic photographs, and news clippings related to Hoover Dam. The "Hoover Dam Collection" includes more than 5,000 items associated with the heritage of the dam, the Boulder City area, and Reclamation. Such artifacts include badges, brochures, electrical instruments, clothing, artwork, newspaper and magazine clippings, and more. The collection also contains approximately 20,000 photographs and about 2,000 slides.


Radiomuseum.org presents here one of the many museum pages. We try to bring data for your direct information about all that is relevant. In the list (link above right) you find the complete listing of museums related to "Radio & Co." we have information of. Please help us to be complete and up to date by using the contact form above.

[dsp_museum_detail.cfm]

  

Data Compliance More Information