Download or read book America s Greatest Dam Muscle Shoals Alabama written by William Benjamin West and published by . This book was released on 1925 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book America s Greatest Dam written by Edward A. Fulton and published by . This book was released on 1920 with total page 10 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Hoover Dam written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-01-11 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the project written by workers and their family members *Includes a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "This morning I came, I saw, and I was conquered, as everyone would be who sees for the first time this great feat of mankind...Ten years ago the place where we gathered was an unpeopled, forbidding desert. In the bottom of the gloomy canyon whose precipitous walls rose to height of more than a thousand feet, flowed a turbulent, dangerous river...The site of Boulder City was a cactus-covered waste. And the transformation wrought here in these years is a twentieth century marvel." - President Franklin D. Roosevelt, September 30, 1935 During the 1930s, at the height of the Great Depression, thousands of workers began work on the Hoover Dam, built in the Black Canyon, which had been cut by the powerful Colorado River. The Colorado River was responsible for the Grand Canyon, and by the 20th century, the idea of damming the river and creating an artificial lake was being explored for all of its potential, including hydroelectric power and irrigation. By the time the project was proposed in the 1920s, the contractors vowing to build it were facing the challenge of building the largest dam the world had ever known. As if that wasn't enough, the landscape was completely unforgiving, as described by the famous explorer John Wesley Powell generations earlier: "The landscape everywhere, away from the river, is of rock--cliffs of rock, tables of rock, plateaus of rock, terraces of rock, crags of rock--ten thousand strangely carved forms...cathedral shaped buttes, towering hundreds or thousands of feet, cliffs that cannot be scaled, and canyon walls that shrink the river into insignificance, with vast hollow domes and tall pinnacles and shafts set on the verge overhead; and all highly colored." The engineering that went into the Hoover Dam was not just dangerous but unprecedented, to the extent that the Hoover Dam relied on building methods that had never been proven effective on such a giant scale. The project also had to employ tens of thousands of people in often dangerous working conditions, which resulted in scores of deaths. At the same time, however, the large number of men that traveled to work on the project helped turn Las Vegas, a nearby small desert town in Nevada, into Sin City. Despite all the difficulties, the Hoover Dam was completed on time, and President Roosevelt summed up just how impressive the accomplishment was in his speech dedicating the site in 1935: "We are here to celebrate the completion of the greatest dam in the world, rising 726 feet above the bedrock of the river and altering the geography of a whole region: we are here to see the creation of the largest artificial lake in the world-115 miles long, holding enough water, for example, to cover the whole State of Connecticut to a depth of ten feet; and we are here to see nearing completion a power house which will contain the largest generators and turbines yet installed in this country, machinery that can continuously supply nearly two million horsepower of electric energy." The Hoover Dam: The History and Construction of America's Most Famous Engineering Project chronicles the construction of America's most famous dam. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Hoover Dam like never before, in no time at all.

Download or read book St Francis Dam Disaster written by John Nichols and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2002-10-01 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Minutes before midnight on the evening of March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam collapsed. The dam's 200-foot concrete wall crumpled, sending billions of gallons of raging flood waters down San Francisquito Canyon, sweeping 54 miles down the Santa Clara River to the sea, and claiming over 450 lives in the disaster. Captured here in over 200 images is a photographic record of the devastation caused by the flood, and the heroic efforts of residents and rescue workers. Built by the City of Los Angeles' Bureau of Water Works and Supply, the failure of the St. Francis Dam on its first filling was the greatest American civil engineering failure of the 20th century. Beginning at dawn on the morning after the disaster, stunned local residents picked up their cameras to record the path of destruction, and professional photographers moved in to take images of the washed-out bridges, destroyed homes and buildings, Red Cross workers giving aid, and the massive clean-up that followed. The event was one of the worst disasters in California's history, second only to the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire.

Download or read book America s Greatest Dam written by William Benjamin West and published by . This book was released on 1920 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book America s Master Dam Builder written by Al M. Rocca and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America's Master Dam Builder is a sweeping biographical epic of Frank T. Crowe. Author Al M. Rocca presents a fascinating story that covers the engineering challenges and triumphs Crowe encountered, from his earliest days with the United States Reclamation Service to his phenomenal conquests of Hoover, Parker and Shasta Dams. Rocca shows how one man rose to the top of the engineering world and supplied the drive and innovation that permitted the construction of large concrete dams, dams of unprecedented size, dams that would transform the American West.

Download or read book Big Dams of the New Deal Era written by David P. Billington and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2017-04-20 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The massive dams of the American West were designed to serve multiple purposes: improving navigation, irrigating crops, storing water, controlling floods, and generating hydroelectricity. Their construction also put thousands of people to work during the Great Depression. Only later did the dams’ baneful effects on river ecologies spark public debate. Big Dams of the New Deal Era tells how major water-storage structures were erected in four western river basins. David P. Billington and Donald C. Jackson reveal how engineering science, regional and national politics, perceived public needs, and a river’s natural features intertwined to create distinctive dams within each region. In particular, the authors describe how two federal agencies, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation, became key players in the creation of these important public works. By illuminating the mathematical analysis that supported large-scale dam construction, the authors also describe how and why engineers in the 1930s most often opted for massive gravity dams, whose design required enormous quantities of concrete or earth-rock fill for stability. Richly illustrated, Big Dams of the New Deal Era offers a compelling account of how major dams in the New Deal era restructured the landscape—both politically and physically—and why American society in the 1930s embraced them wholeheartedly.

Download or read book Americas Greatest Engineering Projects written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-11-14 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the projects' construction *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading The Transcontinental Railroad, laid across the United States during the 1860s, remains the very epitome of contradiction. On the one hand, it was a triumph of engineering skills over thousands of miles of rough terrain, but on the other hand, it drained the natural resources in those places nearly dry. It "civilized" the American West by making it easier for women and children to travel there, but it dispossessed Native American civilizations that had lived there for generations. It made the careers of many men and destroyed the lives from many others. It was bold and careless, ingenious and cruel, gentle and violent, and it enriched some and bankrupted others. In short, it was the best and worst of 19th century America in action. Of course, even once a route was chosen, the backbreaking work itself had to be done to connect railroad lines across the span of nearly 2,000 miles. This required an incredible amount of manpower, often consisting of unskilled laborers engaging in dangerous work, and the financial resources poured into it were also extreme. In a world where few natural rivers carved out over eons of time have reached a length of more than 50 miles, the idea that a group of men could carve a canal of that length seemed impossible. In fact, many thought it could not be done. On the other hand, there was a tremendous motivation to try, because if a canal could be successfully cut across Central America to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, it would cut weeks off the time necessary to carry goods by sea from the well-established East Coast of the United States to the burgeoning West Coast. Moreover, traveling around the tip of South America was fraught with danger, and European explorers and settlers had proposed building a canal in Panama or Nicaragua several centuries before the Panama Canal was actually built. Building the Panama Canal was a herculean task in every sense. Taking about 10 years to build, workers had to excavate millions of cubic yards of earth and fight off hordes of insects to make Roosevelt's vision a reality. Roosevelt also had to tie up the U.S. Navy in a revolt in Colombia to ensure Panama could become independent and thus ensure America had control of the canal. During the 1930s, at the height of the Great Depression, thousands of workers began work on the Hoover Dam, built in the Black Canyon, which had been cut by the powerful Colorado River. The Colorado River was responsible for the Grand Canyon, and by the 20th century, the idea of damming the river and creating an artificial lake was being explored for all of its potential, including hydroelectric power and irrigation. By the time the project was proposed in the 1920s, the contractors vowing to build it were facing the challenge of building the largest dam the world had ever known. As if that wasn't enough, the landscape was completely unforgiving. The engineering that went into the Hoover Dam was not just dangerous but unprecedented, to the extent that the Hoover Dam relied on building methods that had never been proven effective on such a giant scale. The project also had to employ tens of thousands of people in often dangerous working conditions, which resulted in scores of deaths. At the same time, however, the large number of men that traveled to work on the project helped turn Las Vegas, a nearby small desert town in Nevada, into Sin City. America's Greatest Engineering Projects: The Construction History of the Transcontinental Railroad, the Panama Canal, and the Hoover Dam chronicles the construction of each major project, and their subsequent history. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Transcontinental Railroad, Panama Canal, and Hoover Dam like never before.

Download or read book Understanding America s Greatest Existential Threats written by Dr. J. R. Maxwell and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2020-12-08 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this introductory volume, readers will learn about the vital role that the various Critical Infrastructure (CI) sectors play in America, in the context of homeland security. The protection, maintenance, and monitoring of these interdependent CI assets is a shared responsibility of governments, private sector owner/operators, first responders, and all those involved in homeland security and emergency management. As this foundational learning resource demonstrates, rapidly advancing technologies combined with exponential growth in demand on the aging infrastructure of America’s power grid is setting the stage for a potentially catastrophic collapse that would paralyze each and every facet of civilian life and military operations. This meticulously researched primer will guide readers through the known world of power failures and cyber-attacks to the emerging threat from a High-altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP). A HEMP would cause cascading failures in the power grid, communications, water treatment facilities, oil refineries, pipelines, banking, supply chain management, food production, air traffic control, and all forms of transportation. Each chapter in America’s Greatest Existential Threat (Vol. 1) begins with learning objectives and ends with a series of review questions to assess take-up of the chapter material. Similarly, subsequent volumes will explore HEMP and emerging issues in closer detail with current research and analysis now in development.

Download or read book Ninth Annual Old Glory Horse Auction of America s Greatest Light Horses at Madison Square Garden written by Fasig-Tipton Co and published by . This book was released on 1903 with total page 764 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book At the Base of the Giant s Throat written by Anthony R. Palumbi and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2023 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are ninety thousand registered dams in the United States, fifty thousand of them classified as "major." Nearly all of this infrastructure was built during a forty-year period, from 1932 to 1972, in an era of public investment and political consensus that seems inconceivable today. These incredible structures--sometimes called the American Pyramids--helped the country rebound from the Great Depression, brought water and electricity to enormous reaches, helped win World War II for the Allies, and became the basis for decades of prosperous stability. At the Base of the Giant's Throat dives into the history of dam-building in the United States as natural waterscapes have been replaced with engineered environments and the bone-dry West became America's produce aisle. From the Folsom Powerhouse cranking sixty-hertz alternating current in the 1890s to the iconic Hoover Dam and the gargantuan Grand Coulee Dam, Anthony R. Palumbi lays out how dams and water projects changed the North American continent forever and laid the groundwork for an age of unprecedented prosperity. He also describes how institutional complacency corrupted the ethos of public power and public works--and how the influence of rich landowners undermined the credibility of that ethos. Palumbi shows how our nation's ability to cope with natural disasters has been fatally compromised by underinvestment in decaying infrastructure. He argues that a livable future demands investment on a scale few Americans currently grasp. To win that future we must interrogate the history of our most vital public works: the dams, canals, and levees helping to channel life's most precious molecule. At the Base of the Giant's Throat tells the story of America through its water, sweeping across five hundred years of history, from the swashbuckling exploits of French colonist Samuel de Champlain to the nightmarish urban flooding of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy.

Download or read book Dams and Public Safety written by Robert B. Jansen and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Scientific American written by and published by . This book was released on 1921 with total page 644 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Battle over Hetch Hetchy written by Robert W. Righter and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-03-17 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the wake of the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire, the city of San Francisco desperately needed reliable supplies of water and electricity. Its mayor, James Phelan, pressed for the damming of the Tuolumne River in the newly created Yosemite National Park, setting off a firestorm of protest. For the first time in American history, a significant national opposition arose to defend and preserve nature, led by John Muir and the Sierra Club, who sought to protect what they believed was the right of all Americans to experience natural beauty, particularly the magnificent mountains of the Yosemite region. Yet the defenders of the valley, while opposing the creation of a dam and reservoir, did not intend for it to be maintained as wilderness. Instead they advocated a different kind of development--the building of roads, hotels, and an infrastructure to support recreational tourism. Using articles, pamphlets, and broadsides, they successfully whipped up public opinion against the dam. Letters from individuals began to pour into Congress by the thousands, and major newspapers published editorials condemning the dam. The fight went to the floor of Congress, where politicians debated the value of scenery and the costs of western development. Ultimately, passage of the passage of the Raker Act in 1913 by Congress granted San Francisco the right to flood the Hetch Hetchy Valley. A decade later the O'Shaughnessy Dam, the second largest civil engineering project of its day after the Panama Canal, was completed. Yet conflict continued over the ownership of the watershed and the profits derived from hydroelectrocity. To this day the reservoir provides San Francisco with a pure and reliable source of drinking water and an important source of power. Although the Sierra Club lost this battle, the controversy stirred the public into action on behalf of national parks. Future debates over dams and restoration clearly demonstrated the burgeoning strength of grassroots environmentalism. In a narrative peopled by politicians and business leaders, engineers and laborers, preservationists and ordinary citizens, Robert W. Righter tells the epic story of the first major environmental battle of the twentieth century, which reverberates to this day.

Download or read book Keokuk and the Great Dam written by John Hallwas and published by Arcadia Library Editions. This book was released on 2001-04 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This remarkable pictorial history tells the story of an engineering marvel: the first dam built across the Mississippi River (from 1910-1913), and the historic Midwestern community that fostered the world-famous hydroelectric project. Keokuk and the Great Dam is the story of a colorful and historic river town with a dream of economic development and cultural progress; a self-taught engineer who took on a challenge that no one else wanted to attempt; and a massive construction effort that pitted men and machines against the awesome power of America's greatest river. Completed shortly before WWI, the Keokuk dam (now known as Lock and Dam No. 19) was the culmination of a long struggle to employ the Mississippi River for hydroelectric power and to improve navigation on the great waterway. In frontier days the Des Moines Rapids, stretching north from Keokuk, prevented loaded steamboats from moving upriver. They also created a business opportunity for local residents. A rapidly growing town by the 1850s, Keokuk went into decline for many years when it failed to secure adequate railroad connections. But the coming of hydroelectric power fostered a new dream, and local leaders set out to harness the great river. What followed was a dramatic effort that drew international attention, produced the world's second largest dam (at the time), and forever changed both the community and the fabled American waterway.

Download or read book Shasta Dam written by Al M. Rocca and published by . This book was released on 2009-05 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shasta Dam is the second largest dam in America and this book covers the construction during the years, 1938-1945. Using official photographs taken by the Bureau of Reclamation during construction, readers will learn about the engineering challenges that needed to be overcome and of the personal stories of some of the thousands of men and women who built the dam.

Download or read book Pastoral and Monumental written by Donald C. Jackson and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2017-03-15 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Pastoral and Monumental, Donald C. Jackson chronicles America's longtime fascination with dams as represented on picture postcards from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Through over four hundred images, Jackson documents the remarkable transformation of dams and their significance to the environment and culture of America. Initially, dams were portrayed in pastoral settings on postcards that might jokingly proclaim them as "a dam pretty place." But scenes of flood damage, dam collapses, and other disasters also captured people's attention. Later, images of New Deal projects, such as the Hoover Dam, Grand Coulee Dam, and Norris Dam, symbolized America's rise from the Great Depression through monumental public works and technological innovation. Jackson relates the practical applications of dams, describing their use in irrigation, navigation, flood control, hydroelectric power, milling, mining, and manufacturing. He chronicles changing construction techniques, from small timber mill dams to those more massive and more critical to a society dependent on instant access to electricity and potable water. Concurrent to the evolution of dam technology, Jackson recounts the rise of a postcard culture that was fueled by advances in printing, photography, lowered postal rates, and America's fascination with visual imagery. In 1910, almost one billion postcards were mailed through the U.S. Postal Service, and for a period of over fifty years, postcards featuring dams were "all the rage." Whether displaying the charms of an old mill, the aftermath of a devastating flood, or the construction of a colossal gravity dam, these postcards were a testament to how people perceived dams as structures of both beauty and technological power.