Hoover Dam was completed
in 1935, and there is still only a small winding two-lane road across the dam.
This road is U.S. 93 and it links Arizona and Nevada. A bridge over the
Colorado River was originally conceived as a way to improve the traffic
bottleneck across the dam. It now has become vital, because of all the new
paranoia over ‘Homeland Security’; there are now inspection stops on both sides
of the dam. This further stalls traffic; sometimes there are lines of cars for
miles on both sides of the dam.
Design of the bridge and the
roadway approaches began in early 2001. Construction started on the approaches
in early 2003, and on the bridge in late 2004. The bridge and all the roadways
will be open to traffic late 2010.
The bridge will be almost ¼
mile above the Colorado River. If you have a chance to make a day trip to the
dam, go see this magnificent achievement of human design.
If you don’t have the time,
view my five-minute helicopter ride over Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, and the Colorado
River. There are some astonishing views of the bridge construction, and the
surrounding area.
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