The Great Depression Did Not Give A Hoover Dam

A night view on the Colorado River of the Hoover Dam 

Soon after the stock market crash of October 1929 the United States’ economy spiraled downward into what would come to be known as the Great Depression.  The effects of the economic downturn resulted in over thirteen million Americans without a job. President Herbert Hoover and later President FranklinD. Roosevelt ordered for a series domestic programs to create jobs for the United States people. After I finished reading Joseph E. Stevens recount of the griping saga of HooverDam, I correlate the building of Hoover Dam as the symbol of the New Deal as we look back into the history of the early 20^th century.

Las Vegas, Nevada circa 1928

Las Vegas, Nevada circa 1938

From the start of the building of Boulder Dam, the New Deal proved to spark economic growth in the southwestern United States. Stevens agrees when he states in his book, “little Las Vegas was the funnel through which the millions of dollars would pour into Black Canyon, the rugged Colorado River gorge where the dam would rise. “ Las Vegas, Nevada was a small city of 5,000 people prior to the United States government awarding Six Companies the largest single contract the country had seen. After the building of Boulder City, a city built to house the workers of the Dam project, upwards of 20,000 unemployed citizens and immigrants poured into Las Vegas in hopes of landing a job on Six Companies’ engineering marvel.  Stevens even writes “nothing kept the desperate job seekers from flocking to the city” A total of 21,000 men were employed during the five year period that Hoover Dam was built.

More than just creating jobs for unemployed Americans, the building of Hoover Dam would propel the grim economic situation of the United States in another area, electricity.  Hoover Dam supplies power to large percentage of the southwestern United States. 52% of the State of Nevada and the State of Arizona’s power is a result of the dam’s hydroelectric engineering. The dam averages 4.2 terawatts a year, which is almost enough to power Latin America for an entire year!  The hydroelectric engineering that Frank Crowe masterminded is unprecedented and unmatched even in today’s time.

8 of the 17 power generators at Hoover Dam 

As I look back on the Great Depression and the New Deal the landmark symbol is Hoover Dam. All of the banking reforms, housing sectors,  the WPA, and the various other programs created during the New Deal seem like a tiny ant compared to the monstrous Hoover Dam. I like the wording Stevens uses in the book, “For a nation deeply wounded by the Great Depression, the symbolism was doubly important.” Stevens could not be more correct, the Hoover Dam is the symbol of all the good that profited from the creation of the New Deal.  Housing sectors and bank reforms sound great, but when the people of the United States can visit and be awestruck by the beauty and enormity of the Hoover Dam. Franklin D. Roosevelt in his dedicatory address at the Hoover Dam said, “This morning I came, I saw, and I was conquered as everyone will be who sees for the first time this great feat of mankind.”

 The damn dam is a cultural icon, visited by thousands of tourists every year; shown in films for decades. The United States would not be the country it is today without the Hoover Dam. The Great Depression did not give a damn about America, but the New Deal gave us a Hoover Dam!