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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.
The tale of the Bechtel family dynasty is a classic American business story. It begins with Warren A. 'Dad' Bechtel, who led a consortium that constructed the Hoover Dam. From that auspicious start, the family and its eponymous company would go on to 'build the world,' from the construction of airports in Hong Kong and Doha, to pipelines and tunnels in Alaska and Europe, to mining and energy operations around the globe. Today Bechtel is one of the largest privately held corporations in the world, enriched and empowered by a long history of government contracts and the privatization of public works, made possible by an unprecedented revolving door between its San Francisco headquarters and Washingto
On cover: Reclamation, Managing Water in the West. Tells the history of the Bureau of Reclamation from 1902-1945.
When national newspapers reported in 1938 that a large dam would be built in northern California, hundreds of job-seeking families streamed into Shasta County. Shasta Dam would be America's last large concrete dam and would take years to build, offering employment for those fortunate enough to secure a construction job during the Great Depression. Captured here in over 200 rare photographs is the story of the building of Shasta Dam, the boomtowns that resulted from its construction, and the residents who made the Shasta Lake region what it is today. America's master dam builder Frank T. Crowe and his band of dam builders diverted the Sacramento River and began the massive job of excavating millions of yards of dirt and rock. Meanwhile, boomtowns housing dam workers and their families rapidly expanded, developing both commercial and residential zones. Work on the dam was completed in 1945 and the question arose: Would the boomtowns survive? Featuring images from the United States Bureau of Reclamation and the Shasta Lake Historical Society, this new book focuses on both towns that no longer exist and some that still thrive, including Redding, Toyon, Shasta Dam Village, Project City, Summit City, and Central Valley.
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.
As breathtaking today as the day it was completed, Hoover Dam not only shaped the American West but helped launch the American century. In the depths of the Great Depression it became a symbol of American resilience and ingenuity in the face of crisis, putting thousands of men to work in a remote desert canyon and bringing unruly nature to heel. Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Michael Hiltzik uses the saga of the dam’s conception, design, and construction to tell the broader story of America’s efforts to come to grips with titanic social, economic, and natural forces. For embodied in the dam’s striking machine-age form is the fundamental transformation the Depression wrought in the nation’s very culture—the shift from the concept of rugged individualism rooted in the frontier days of the nineteenth century to the principle of shared enterprise and communal support that would build the America we know today. In the process, the unprecedented effort to corral the raging Colorado River evolved from a regional construction project launched by a Republican president into the New Deal’s outstanding—and enduring—symbol of national pride. Yet the story of Hoover Dam has a darker side. Its construction was a gargantuan engineering feat achieved at great human cost, its progress marred by the abuse of a desperate labor force. The water and power it made available spurred the development of such great western metropolises as Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and San Diego, but the vision of unlimited growth held dear by its designers and builders is fast turning into a mirage. In Hiltzik’s hands, the players in this epic historical tale spring vividly to life: President Theodore Roosevelt, who conceived the project; William Mulholland, Southern California’s great builder of water works, who urged the dam upon a reluctant Congress; Herbert Hoover, who gave the dam his name though he initially opposed its construction; Frank Crowe, the dam’s renowned master builder, who pushed his men mercilessly to raise the beautiful concrete rampart in an inhospitable desert gorge. Finally there is Franklin Roosevelt, who presided over the ultimate completion of the project and claimed the credit for it. Hiltzik combines exhaustive research, trenchant observation, and unforgettable storytelling to shed new light on a major turning point of twentieth-century history.
What turns a building into an icon? What is it about some structures that makes their history and legend even more important than their original intended use, making them a part of American, and world, popular culture? Twenty four buildings and structures, including the Brooklyn Bridge, the White House, the Hotel del Coronado, and the Washington Monument are presented here, along with their roles in fiction, film, music, and the imagination of people worldwide. Approximately twenty five images are included in the set, along with sidebars featuring additional structures.
★ "In this detailed and informative work, Boughton chronicles the construction of the Hoover Dam via compellingly comprehensive text." —Publishers Weekly, starred review ★ "This well-written narrative is bound to become the authority on this modern American marvel." —Booklist, starred review Discover the complicated history behind the construction of Hoover Dam—one of the country’s most recognizable and far-reaching landmarks—and its lasting political and environmental effects on the Colorado River and the American West. At the time of its completion in 1936, Hoover Dam was the biggest dam in the world and the largest feat of architecture and engineering in the country—a statement of national ambition and technical achievement. It turned the wild Colorado River into a tame and securely managed water source, transforming millions of acres of desert into farmland while also providing water and power to the fast-growing population of the Southwest. The concrete monolith quickly became a symbol of American ingenuity; however, its history is laden with contradiction. It provided work for thousands, but it was a dangerous project that exploited desperate workers during the Depression. It helped secure the settlement and economies of the Southwest, but at the expense of Indigenous peoples and the environment; and it created a dependency on the Colorado River’s water, which is under threat from overuse and climate change. Weaving together elements of engineering, geography, and political and socioeconomic history, and drawing heavily from unpublished oral histories taken from dam workers and their families, Simon Boughton’s thoughtful and compelling debut—featuring historical photographs throughout—follows the construction and impact of Hoover Dam, and how its promise of abundance ultimately created a river in crisis today. A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection "A fascinating history of the building of the Hoover Dam…. A great addition to nonfiction collections covering dams, ecology, and history of the Southwest." —School Library Journal "A fascinating blend of social and environmental history and engineering." —Kirkus Reviews "Truly breathtaking. This is a powerful story and like the water slowly rising behind that concrete barrier, it becomes more powerful with each page turn." —David Macaulay, two-time recipient of the Caldecott Medal and creator of the bestselling The Way Things Work "An exciting mix of research, storytelling, and an astounding true story—one that’s still unfolding today." —Steve Sheinkin, three-time National Book Award finalist and Newbery Honor author of Bomb