How Did They Build Hoover Dam? (2016)
See it like never before
Hoover Dam is one of the world’s top engineering marvels. Standing as a 726-foot-tall testament to what happens when human ambition meets relentless engineering.
At a time when the world was reeling from the Great Depression, thousands of men descended upon the Black Canyon to do the impossible. To build something everybody said could not be done. To build the largest dam in the world, in the middle of nowhere, on the widest and most unpredictable rivers, the Colorado River
Everything about this project was off the charts. From its size and cost to the technology needed to make it happen.
Think about it. In 1931, there was no computer-aided design and manufacturing. There wasn’t even anything resembling a computer. To do what they did, where they did it, and how they did it, just boggles the mind
Where am I Going with This?
The one thing I tell my guests when I do a Hoover Dam tour is to look at the dam from that perspective. The Great depression, the middle of nowhere, everyone saying it can’t be done. It’s too large, too complex. It was going to fail. There were no computers. It was brains, brawn, dynamite, and a lot of men desperate to do almost anything for a paycheck.
Yet, here we are. 91 years later, people come from all over the world just to look at it. It’s still working as it was designed to do.
When you start to look at and think about everything it took to make it a reality, you become absolutely amazed by what they did and how they figured it out. Or at least I do.
I have seen just about every documentary ever made about building the Hoover Dam. Most just go over what the storybooks tell them. I found one that is unlike any other, and it’s not really a documentary.
It’s made by a guy named Jacob O’Neal, who likes to find out how things work, then uses computer graphics to show us how it was made and how it works.
With the Hoover Dam, he includes the one thing no other documentary or video could ever do. Show us everything at a human scale. Currently sitting at over 3 million views with thousands of comments from people in awe of what they just watched. After watching it, I think you will agree that this is the best one ever made.
After watching that and wanting more (and who doesn’t?), watch the video on how he made this video.
Grab some popcorn, put on some comfortable headphones, and settle back and get ready to be amazed.
