All language subtitles for The Engineering That Built the World s01e08 The Hoover Dam

It brings water to over 25 million
people.

It's more massive than the Great
Pyramid, with enough concrete to circle

equator and required a city of 5 ,000
men to build.

It's the Hoover Dam.

The Hoover Dam would be the tallest dam
ever made, and it was of vital national

importance. Hoover Dam really created
the West as we know it today.

But before it was built, the West is
dry, its cities small, and the powerful

river that carved the Grand Canyon
wreaks havoc.

It's a wild beast. It's unpredictable.

It has its own will. It's like God. One
man's quest to harness its power seems

unattainable. Just the scale is
tremendous.

This project is basically impossible.

He will test the limits of engineering.

I'm doing it as fast as humanly
possible.

Crew's plan is to refrigerate the dam
from inside out.

And survival.

He was obsessive and compulsive about
the job. And that obsessive compulsion

caused life.

Men were dying of dehydration. They
could be hit by fallen rocks. Blown up

explosions.

With millions at stake to overcome
nature.

He is an engineering genius.

He has the ability to bend rivers to his
will.

We need results.

He was willing to push everybody to the
limit to get it done.

And build the American West.

In terms of if he's a hero or a villain,
he was definitely both.

This is the story of the Hoover Dam.

The dawn of the 20th century, and the U
.S. Census Bureau has declared the

American West is no longer a frontier.

Most of the Western territories have
officially become states.

The American West, it looms large in the
American imagination as this incredible

natural environment. It also looms
really large as a place of new

If life has gotten you down, head west,
because you can reinvent yourself.

But the West is still wild.

For settlers, one of the hardships they
face is the inability to control one

essential resource.

The story of civilization in the
American West is a story of finding and

managing water.

The area as a whole is very arid, so the
rivers are vital for farming. At the

same time, in the spring...

Those rivers can flood and they can wipe
out those farms and those towns and

those crops.

It's either too little water or way too
much.

From the earliest days, farmers tried to
save what they saw as excess runoff

water in the spring when the rivers are
overflowing to use on their farms during

the drier season. They would make their
own little ad hoc irrigation systems or

little reservoirs and dams.

There were small -scale projects that
really didn't have a tremendous impact

beyond their immediate region.

For the West to flourish, America needs
to conquer its biggest water wave.

For that, they'll need to engineer large
-scale dams. The idea of using

a dam to control the river means you
create a basin that fills up.

Behind the dam, an artificial lake.

or reservoir, is formed.

Whenever the river flow surges, the
reservoir is able to contain the excess

water.

When the river is in flood stage,
instead of overflowing the banks, it

fills that reservoir up a little deeper
upstream.

Dams and their reservoirs are also a
huge source of water that can be sent by

canal or pipes to where it's needed to
create farmland out of desert.

to provide more drinking water to
cities, for the West to have the water

food it needs to grow.

It needs large -scale dams. But at the
turn of the century, those dams

don't exist.

There's this idea that maybe we could
get the federal government to finance

these large -scale dam projects.

And in 1902, President Theodore
Roosevelt pushes through the Reclamation

which will provide funding and oversight
of new irrigation projects.

President Roosevelt and others felt that
there was a need for the federal

government to control those waterways
and to tap them for their potential.

The dams and reservoirs they need will
be built by the newly formed United

States Bureau of Reclamation.

Within five years, they begin building
dams on some western rivers.

But in Idaho, one bureau engineer is
obsessed with finding a better process

one day building the biggest dam in the
world.

Frank Crowe is the most experienced dam
builder in the entire United States.

He had a way of appearing on the
worksite at almost any hour. Crowe had

nickname, Hurry Up Crowe. He wasn't
known for sentimentality.

What are you waiting for?

Jeff Whistle.

I can't help you with that.

But why don't you go collect your pay
and get off my site?

What he was known for was dedication to
completing the job that he was hired to

do. The job came first.

Fred Crowe is born in Canada, in Quebec.

His family moves to Massachusetts, and
he studies engineering at the University

of Maine. He skips graduation in order
to go and work for the

Bureau of Reclamation because he was
passionate. He has found his calling.

is what he wanted to do.

He was involved in dam works all over
the West, but unlike the pencil pushers,

Frank Crowe was out in the field working
down in the muck with all of these men

who were working. So he might be their
boss, but he was one of them.

While his career has been successful,
his personal life has been anything but.

In 1911, he loses his first wife and
unborn child to a pregnancy -related

infection. Three years later, he loses
another child with his second wife.

Every single time, it seems as though he
just pulls away from connecting to

people and connects to things that he
can't lose.

And he can't lose a dam. That is
permanent. So he puts his energy into

that aren't going to crush his heart.

In 1915, Crow finishes Idaho's Arrow
Rock Dam, which at the time, at

350 feet, is the tallest dam ever built.

He's hopeful that his next big project
will be the one he's dreamed about for a

decade.

It would control one of the longest
rivers in North America, extending 1

miles through seven states in the U .S.
and Mexico.

Its powerful currents carved the Grand
Canyon, the mighty Colorado River.

The Colorado River, in its natural
state, is one of the most dangerous

the world. It can go from being a calm
stream to a violently shifting,

flooding river in the course of just a
few hours.

When the Colorado River flooded, these
were massive floods.

If you've ever been to the Grand Canyon,
here is this mile -deep canyon carved

just by the force of that water.

It's a wild beach.

It's unpredictable.

It has no boss. It has its own will.
It's like God.

Because of the extreme volume of the
Colorado River's floods, initial plans

for the world's first mega dam.

When completed, the Hoover Dam will be
twice as tall as any before it.

It will create the world's largest
artificial lake, containing enough

to cover the state of Connecticut 10
feet deep.

Its water supply will turn the Sonoran
Desert into farmland and make possible

the metropolises of Los Angeles, Las
Vegas, and Phoenix.

Just the scale is tremendous.

It was more material than the biggest
Egyptian pyramids. It was just huge.

No engineering marvel, certainly not of
this size and scale, had ever been

attempted. There were thoughts about
whether it even should be attempted,

the potential risks.

Engineers with the Bureau of Reclamation
start by zeroing in on the location for

their megadam, a narrow stretch of
canyon on the Arizona -Nevada border

Black Canyon.

In the early days of planning for a dam
on the Colorado River, Frank Crowe was

anxious to have a hand in it. That was
the one that he wanted most.

For Frank Crowe, this is the big one.
This is the biggest of all. A dam that's

like nothing else.

But a job this big takes years to get
off the ground.

And just as the Colorado River Dam is
finally on the cusp of approval, the

Bureau drops a bomb.

on Frank Crowe's dreams.

They want to outsource all of our
projects.

I heard.

I can't sit here while all of our best
projects are handed over to someone else

to build.

I didn't sign up for an office job.

That presented a dilemma for...

Frank Crowe, if he wanted to stay at the
Reclamation Bureau, that meant that he

was going to be consigned to desk jobs
for the rest of his career.

It was a difficult decision for him
because his chance to have a hand in the

construction of Hoover Dam wasn't as
certain.

Twenty years after joining the Bureau,
Frank Crowe quits, taking a job where he

can still get his hands dirty.

building dams for a private construction
firm.

But on the heels of his resignation, the
dam on the Colorado River is finally

approved.

The most ambitious public works project
in U .S. history is finally happening.

Without him.

Less than a year after Congress clears
the way for the damming of the Colorado

River to begin, the stock market crash
and Great Depression bring the nation to

a halt.

At the height of the Great Depression,
15 million Americans were unemployed.

That's a quarter of the country's
workforce.

For African Americans, there were over
half of that population that were

jobs.

The unemployment in this period is a
tremendous blow to the American psyche.

People don't want to be on the public
dole. They want to go to work. There's a

hunger for employment.

And all eyes are on the new U .S.
president, Herbert Hoover, to fix the

President Hoover isn't a pickle. He
needs to do something, and he needs to

fast. Hoover talked big about over $3
billion worth of projects coming online,

offering a way for the American public
to find employment.

But none of these projects came to
fruition.

Large -scale public projects take years
of work before they're shovel -ready.

But there's one that already has decades
of engineering planning behind it and

the approval of Congress.

So Hoover sets his sights on the
Colorado River Dam.

Everything was pretty much ready to go.
Herbert Hoover was also an engineer, and

the project fit very well into his
efficient role for the government.

Now, all it needs is a company big
enough to tackle it.

There were many companies that thought
about bidding on the project and bailed

out because they were told this project
is basically impossible.

Frank Crow believes he's up to the task.

But his company isn't.

They didn't have the financial resources
to make it happen.

So he devises a unique proposal.

The only way to make it happen would be
to have more than one company involved

in some way.

Using his connections from his days with
the Bureau, Crow convinces other

companies to join forces.

They call the group...

Six companies.

Frank Crowe made it happen. When the
Bureau of Reclamation opens the project

for bids, there's a catch.

They want the dam finished in just seven
years.

If the winning company fails to complete
the project on time, they'll owe the

government $5 million, the equivalent of
$90 million today.

It's enough to scare off all but the
most determined dam builders.

Frank Crowe spent right up to the night
before the bids were opened with pencil

and paper in hand, working out the last
numbers.

On the morning of March 4, 1931, Crowe
delivers six companies' bid to his

colleagues at the Bureau of Reclamation.

The amount, $48 ,890 ,000.

$955.

It would be the largest contract ever
issued by the federal government.

Back at his office.

Are we still getting calls?

Yes, Mr. Crow.

All he can do is wait.

The project goes to the six companies.

He actually submitted a bid that was
within a couple of percent of the

that the Reclamation Bureau's engineers
had come up with for the project. He hit

it almost completely on the nose.

On March 12, 1931, just eight days after
winning the contract, Frank Crow

arrives at the nearest town to the dam
site.

It's a tiny railroad hub of just 5 ,000
people called Las Vegas.

Las Vegas ain't much there in the 1920s.
You know, it's a stop on the railroad,

a watering hole.

After checking into a motel, Crow heads
into the desert, 30 miles southeast of

town, where the dam will be built.

National news reports announce the dam
will employ upwards of 5 ,000 men.

Crow looks to former colleague Walker
Young to help staff the project.

Good to see you again.

Walker Young is the Reclamation Bureau's
superintendent, so it's really his job

to make sure not only that the dam gets
built, but that it gets built according

to specifications.

Frank, this is Leonard Blood. He'll be
in charge of hiring a crew.

Everyone's looking for a job on the dam.
He's had 2 ,500 job applications in a

week.

Miners, farmers, ranchers, musicians,
everybody who'd lost a job anywhere in

country began migrating fast to southern
Nevada because this is where they hoped

they could get a job.

Plans call for the building of an entire
town, Boulder City, to house the

workforce and their families.

One day, it will be a fully functioning
community with movie theaters, churches,

and its own hospital.

But President Hoover wants dam
construction started immediately.

Because the dam project is accelerated
essentially to address the depression,

they can't get that home site built in
time to accommodate the first workers.

So workers must improvise.

Those men and their families end up
living basically on the shores of the

Colorado in a community known as
Ragtown, which gives you a sense of how

informal it was and how hastily it's
built.

With a workforce of 1 ,400.

Construction begins in July of 1931.

Crow must start with the most difficult
aspect of the entire project.

If you think about it, the biggest
challenge of building a dam is the fact

there's a river there.

You need the region where you're going
to build the dam to be dry when you

it. So you have to build a diversion
tunnel so the river can go around the

region where you're going to build the
dam temporarily while you do the

construction.

The dam is being built in a stretch of
the Colorado River known as Black

To divert the river, Frank Crow will
need to bore over three miles of tunnels

through the canyon walls made of hard
volcanic rock.

These are huge tunnels.

Each one of them, you're going to have
to have a bore of 56 feet in diameter.

This is a huge project.

And there's a catch.

Though the entire dam project has a
seven -year deadline, The government

the tunnels completed in just over two
years, or six companies will face a huge

financial penalty.

Frank Crowe had been given a deadline,
October 1, 1933, to get these tunnels

built, or be fined $3 ,000 a day.

So there was enormous pressure to get
these things completed.

When tunneling begins...

Crow is hit with an onslaught of issues.

The living conditions of workers during
the first year is atrocious.

There was no running water. There was,
of course, no electricity.

Workers had to live with tarantulas,
snakes.

There were lots of accidents.

Rocks fell from the canyon and
completely smashed workers.

But the biggest problem of all...

might be the heat. In 1931, the average
summer temperature was almost 120

degrees every day.

I mean, you just imagine not only having
to live in that, but work in that.

150 hospitalizations happened that
summer from heat prostration.

And it wasn't just the men that were
dropping dead from the heat. It was

families.

The clock is ticking to complete the
tunnels, and productivity is already

Frank Crowe's bosses at the six
companies are concerned he's falling

schedule.

I'm digging through volcanic rock.

I'm doing it as fast as humanly
possible.

Frank Crowe is under a lot of pressure
in order to meet the deadline.

I have a plan.

I always have a plan.

Crow makes an audacious gamble to speed
things up. He slashes wages.

The men who were earning $5 a day
suddenly were going to do other jobs on

project that paid a dollar less.

The reduction of the wage rate from $5
to $4 is not done out of necessity. This

was a strategy that six companies were
using in order to exert control over its

workers. to show their power.

Almost immediately, 600 angry workers
crowd together in protest, leaving

Crowe to make a move to quell the
uprising.

Crowe's actions during the strike have
always been very perplexing.

Will he crack under their demands or
feed the fire?

With just seven years to complete the
largest dam ever attempted, 600 workers

decide to go on strike.

The workers thought that Frank Crowe
would take their part because he was

boss, he was their leader, but he didn't
actually want to give the workers what

they wanted.

Crowe has a different plan.

For every one of these guys, I can find
ten more men to take their place.

The last thing we need is bad press.

I'm suspending all work indefinitely.

So instead of a few hundred strikers,
you're locking out 1 ,400?

We have more job applications than the
Colorado has water.

I think that in his obsessive compulsive
psychology that he felt he needed to

shut down the site and start over.

and make sure that everyone that worked
on the project would be friendly to get

this incredible job done.

What we don't need here is lazy
agitators.

Crow meets with the press to get ahead
of the story.

Frank Crow and six companies were
extremely resourceful in

using the press for their own advantage.

I'm shutting down and looking for new
workers.

Won't that put you behind schedule?

This strike is stalling work.

If they hadn't walked out, we'd have had
electricity, light, and fans in the

dorms by tonight.

I think Crow is absolutely taking
advantage of the conditions of the Great

Depression. He knows he will never have
a problem finding labor for the dam, no

matter what the conditions are, and in
fact, no matter how low the pay is

pushed.

After a six -day shutdown, Half of the
striking workers agree to the reduced

wages and return.

The rest are replaced.

Construction of the diversion tunnels
resumes, and Crow must make up for lost

time. First of all, they're the biggest
tunnels that have ever been built.

To excavate these tunnels, the teams
have to use scaffolds so that they can

drillers up 56 feet high to drill holes
into which they're going to insert

explosives.

The standard practice is to build
scaffolding to place explosives and then

all that scaffolding down before the
explosion is set. This is a very time

-consuming process.

Desperate for a way to speed things up,
Crow's right -hand man, Woody Williams,

proposes an unorthodox idea.

The brilliant solution is to have
scaffolding on wheels.

Woody Williams realizes that if you
could put a scaffold on the truck bed,

could essentially drive it up to the
rock face and then drive it away when

time came for the detonation.

You don't have to rebuild the
scaffolding every time.

They called it the Williams Jumbo.

And it was a great big lumbering, weird
-looking thing you think that would just

fall over the minute you tried to move
it. But it turned out to be something

that really worked.

Sometimes some of the most powerful and
most impactful technologies are actually

very low -tech.

Using the new scaffolding on wheels
dramatically speeds up the excavation.

But using trucks in the tunnels causes
its own issues.

There are a number of potential dangers
in using gas -powered trucks in

unventilated tunnels.

One of the most concerning is the
exhaust from the truck is going to build

inside the tunnel, and you don't vent it
out. So you get carbon monoxide that

may build up.

Carbon monoxide poisoning causes
headaches, nausea, confusion, and

worse.

But it's nothing the six companies
didn't already know.

A Nevada state inspector has already
warned them against it. One of his

recommendations was to stop using
gasoline -powered vehicles underground

create the diversion tunnels because it
was illegal since 1929 in Nevada law to

operate these kind of vehicles
underground.

But six companies has already made a
huge investment in gas -powered

Six companies wants to save money
everywhere they can on the dam site.

They don't want to import electrical
vehicles to replace the gas -powered

vehicles in the tunnels because that
will cost them $300 ,000 that they don't

want to spend.

It's a decision with deadly
consequences.

Workers were dying because of carbon
monoxide poisoning in the construction

the diversion tunnels.

The attitude towards safety was very
different then. There was a sense that

project was of vital national
importance, so they were willing to

workers to a lot of risk.

It was almost accepted, wrongfully so,
that lots of life will come with these

massive construction projects. That was
par for the course then.

Frank Crowe and the six companies face a
fine of $50 ,000 a day in today's money

if they can't meet their deadline,
leaving Crowe with an impossible choice,

money or save lives.

Beginning in the early 1930s, the nation
is suffering through a painful reminder

of the importance of water.

Severe droughts have led to rich
farmland throughout the southern plain

drying up.

Nutrient -dense topsoil is simply
blowing away.

This presents a problem, because if your
farmland is now in the air, you can't

grow anything in it.

The devastation becomes known as the
Dust Bowl.

But as these farmers head west, there
has to be some kind of

rerouting.

of water and energy to where these so
-called Okies are trying to find a new

life.

Never has the need been greater to
harness the Colorado River's water.

And when Franklin Delano Roosevelt takes
over the presidency from Herbert Hoover

in 1933, he continues to push for the
completion of the dam.

What ends up happening is that Roosevelt
repurposes the dam project as part of

his Works Progress Administration and
makes it a signature element in his

to put American people back to work.

Meanwhile, Frank Crowe has been hurrying
to meet the government's deadline for

boring the Colorado River diversion
tunnels.

But there's a problem.

The worst injuries really occur in the
tunnels.

That's where men are being poisoned by
carbon monoxide.

But rather than remove the truck
emitting the deadly gas,

Six Companies presses ahead to keep pace
and sweeps the causes of death under

the rug.

Many, many people perished from inhaling
carbon monoxide. And this was

documented by the Six Companies surgeon
as pneumonia or heart trouble.

Because then there wouldn't be said that
it was a natural cause of death. So it

would not count to the final tally of
how many men died in the construction of

the Hoover Dam.

There was no way that Hurry Up Crow
could succeed in hurrying up and getting

this done without taking on enormous
risks, risks that today we would never

on. The legacy is that it's good and bad
tied together.

Thanks to the gas -powered scaffolding
on truck, by the fall of 1932, the

diversion tunnels are finished a year
ahead of schedule.

And the process of diverting the
Colorado River into the tunnels begins

bang.

Frank Crowe set off a series of
explosions on the canyon wall to really

spectacle of what this event really
meant.

Next, Crow's men fill the entire river
with debris, blocking its path and

forcing the water to flow into the
massive tunnels.

In some ways, building the diversion
tunnel was as big and as impressive a

as building the dam itself.

Crow now has just five and a half years
to complete the 6 .6 million ton dam.

This is going to involve a dam which is
almost twice the height of any other dam

that had been built prior.

Just the scale is tremendous.

He must now begin removing the old
weathered rock from the canyon walls so

dam can be anchored to clean bedrock.
Otherwise, it could break off and

collapse.

But removing the rock face is precarious
work.

One of the most dangerous jobs on site
is known as...

The high scalers.

These are daredevils.

They're acrobats without a net.

High scalers would bend themselves from
the top of the canyon rim.

These walls are, you know, six, seven
hundred feet high.

Their job is basically to clean and
smooth the canyon walls so that they can

become anchorages for the dam itself.

Of course, this means also you're going
to have all this rock falling.

They could be hit by falling debris or
falling rocks. The probability of

something bad happening is immense.

This was not for the faint of heart.

To protect against falling debris,
workers come up with a safety

Very early on, some of the workers
started to make these things called hard

-boiled hats.

Want to show us what's going on here,
fellas?

They started dipping their hats in tar
so that it got nice and hard and

was a bit of protection.

Frank Crowe takes their idea a step
further.

Six companies, the very first company,
they commercially manufactured hard hats

for their workers, and it was something
that absolutely saved lives on the

project.

Frank Crowe is really...

A yin and yang, a good and a bad.

He had to often be a little harsh.

On the other hand, having worked down in
the canyons with these men, he

understood perfectly their perspective,
well, this is really hard work.

As 1932 draws to a close, preparations
begin to pour the concrete. But the

massive size creates a seemingly
insurmountable hurdle.

Large amounts of concrete take longer to
cool and are likely to crack.

With five years left on the deadline, it
will require a miracle solution.

Because the time a solid piece of
concrete this big needs to cool?

125 years.

By the spring of 1933, Frank Crow has
five years left to complete the Hoover

Dam. His biggest challenge yet, pouring
the concrete, can finally begin.

When you look at a picture of Hoover
Dam, you know that

there is so much concrete. But really,
you're just seeing the face of it.

You don't really see and appreciate how
much concrete is at the base.

At its crest, the Hoover Dam will be
wide enough for a two -lane highway, U

93.

But its base will be a solid mass of
concrete as wide as two football fields.

The sheer volume presents an all -new
engineering challenge.

We tend to think of concrete as pretty
simple stuff.

You mix it up, you pour it into a mold,
and it hardens, and that's it.

In fact, it's chemically a complicated
thing that happens when concrete

When water mixes with the cement in
concrete, it starts a chemical reaction

generates heat, nearly 15 degrees for
every 100 pounds.

Concrete is going to give off a huge
amount of heat.

If you've ever gotten a cast on your arm
and the plaster sets, it gets warm.

It's just like concrete.

Frank Crowe will be pouring 4 .5 million
cubic yards of concrete, enough to lay

a sidewalk four feet wide around the
Earth.

Hoover Dam is going to require more
concrete than has ever been used in all

the concrete dams in the United States
put together up to that time.

If the dam were poured as one solid
piece, it's so massively thick, it would

take 125 years to cool.

And the temperature difference between
the hot inside and cool outside would

cause cracking.

That was not going to happen because
Frank Crow is, at the end of the day,

resourceful and finds solutions.

Instead, the concrete will be poured
into 215 blocks, like giant Lego pieces.

The smaller size makes it easier for
heat to escape.

To maximize cooling, the concrete must
set a little at a time.

Government engineers calculate they can
risk pouring no more than five feet

every 72 hours.

Here's where the most inspired part of
the plan came in.

They realized that they couldn't let the
heat dissipate naturally. It would take

too long.

They would need to actively chill the
dam.

Crew's plan is basically to refrigerate
the dam from inside out.

At a time when only one in ten
households even has a refrigerator,

Crow must build the largest cooling
system ever conceived.

They designed a system to run steel pipe
through every single one of these

blocks that they were going to port. The
pipes were all connected to a gigantic

refrigeration plant.

If that plant had been designed just to
make ice, like for people's cocktails,

it would have been able to make a
thousand tons of ice a day.

Instead, it chilled water that ran
through these steel pipes.

Through the whole dam, as they built it
up, they added more pipes.

But the process adds time to an already
complicated build, and the government is

watching. I'll remind you again of the
contract. No more than five feet of

concrete on any single block in 72
hours.

I know the rules, and I'll still stay
ahead of schedule.

To finish in five years.

and avoid owing the government millions
in late penalties, Frank Crowe gambles

on a bold new method to pour concrete
faster than has ever been done before.

It's 1934, and Frank Crowe has just four
years to finish construction.

He staked six companies' profits on his
ability to save time in pouring concrete

by using an unproven method.

There are two individual concrete plants
on the dam site itself.

They produce concrete that's poured from
the plants directly into buckets that

are carried over to the dam site by a
network of cables that Crow essentially

has invented all by himself.

Crow's idea was something he'd used
before on some of these previous large

that he'd built.

On this dam, he had to do it on a
massively greater scale.

Using the cableway.

the buckets of concrete glide down into
the canyon, going directly to where

they're needed, where they dump their
load.

That innovation fed up the process of
pouring concrete, probably by a factor

of five or ten, because it became
unnecessary to move the concrete into

And it showed Crow's thinking that to
get this thing done, They needed to do

everything on a larger, more industrial
scale.

We're moving quickly, but I think we can
still go faster.

I'm going to hand out bonuses to the
ship that moves the most concrete.

Get everyone's competitive nature riled
up.

This is why I think Crowe's ability as a
constructor really come to the fore. It

was incredibly successful.

On February 21, 1935, four years after
Frank Crowe arrived in Nevada,

the last bucket of concrete is poured.

The Hoover Dam is definitely one of the
greatest all -time engineering

achievements. There are many innovations
that had never been previously seen in

dam construction.

a cooling system, and so it blazed the
way for future engineers.

I'm here to celebrate the completion of
the greatest dam in the world.

President Roosevelt dedicates the dam on
September 30, 1935.

Frank Crowe has finished.

Two years ahead of schedule.

For this astounding feat, six companies
awards him a bonus of $7 million in

today's dollars.

In terms of if he's a hero or a villain,
he was definitely both.

On one end, he is an engineering genius.

He has the ability to bend rivers to his
will. That being said, he was.

obsessive and compulsive about the job.

And that obsessive compulsion costs
lives.

Officially, there were 96 industrial
fatalities in the building of the Hoover

Dam. How many more died of heat stroke
and carbon monoxide poisoning will never

be known.

But as a result, worker safety begins to
improve.

This was a huge watershed moment. This
began to show that employers needed to

prioritize worker health because it was
financially something they had to do.

And health and safety is gradually seen
as something that needs to be adhered to

throughout the 1930s, throughout the New
Deal, and into World War II.

When it was completed, the Hoover Dam
would be the tallest dam ever built.

damming up the greatest reservoir ever
made.

It's also a thing of beauty. It's kind
of our idea of what a dam should look

like, and that beautiful white concrete
just plugging that narrow canyon.

It took a lot of money to build.

But thankfully, because it also produces
electricity, it has paid for itself. By

1987, it was fully paid off, and now
pays for its own maintenance.

It's a self -sustaining engineering
marble.

Hoover Dam radically transforms the
American Southwest.

Its flood control and irrigation create
some of America's biggest farms where

once was desert.

Its water and electricity give cities
like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Phoenix

the resources to grow to what they are
today. In Las Vegas alone, the

quintuples in just 20 years.

This is a project that's constructed in
the middle of the Great Depression at a

time when people are questioning America
really gives a sense to Americans that,

yes, they can, in fact, put their nose
to the grindstone and accomplish things,

but they still have it within them to be
builders.