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Hoover Dam
The concrete colossus on the Colorado
Hoover Dam plugs the Colorado River in Black Canyon on the Arizona–Nevada border, a 726-foot (221 m) concrete arch-gravity dam completed in 1936. One of the great engineering feats of the 20th century, it tamed the wild lower Colorado for flood control, irrigation, and hydroelectric power, and its reservoir, Lake Mead, is the largest by capacity in the United States.
Built during the Depression by thousands of workers in brutal desert heat, the dam holds back enough water to supply cities and farms across the Southwest. Its sweeping Art Deco design and the sheer scale of its curved face draw millions of visitors, many arriving from nearby Las Vegas.