The overlooked corners inside

• Winged Figures of the Republic

  On the Nevada-side dedication plaza, two bronze figures roughly thirty feet tall stand on either side of the flagpole, wings spread — the *Winged Figures of the Republic*. Each was cast in a single continuous pour and polished to a mirror finish. To maneuver them into place without scratching that surface, workers set them on blocks of ice and let the slow melt guide each figure down to its base. Sculptor Oskar JW Hansen designed several works across the dam site; these are the most visible.

  Sources: en.wikipedia.org

• Hoover Dam Star Map

  Set into the terrazzo floor of the Nevada-side dedication plaza, surrounding the bronze monument base, is an inlaid star map. It is not decoration — it is a time capsule pressed into the ground: the chart records the position of the stars over the Northern Hemisphere at the exact moment President Roosevelt dedicated Hoover Dam. The designer fixed the sky at that precise instant so that future astronomers, if they ever needed to, could read the map and calculate the exact date of dedication. Look down at your feet: you are standing on the night sky of September 30, 1935.

• Hoover Dam Powerhouse — Nevada Side

  Looking downstream from the dam's crest, a U-shaped concrete structure sits tight against the base — the powerhouse, split between two states, with this wing on the Nevada side. Excavation of the U-shaped structure ran in parallel with digging the dam's foundation; the cavity was complete by late 1933 and the first concrete was poured that November. The Nevada side holds more than just generators: the dedication plaza above it, with its winged bronze figures and terrazzo star map, stands on the Nevada abutment. Most visitors cross the crest and move on without glancing down at the wall face below — which is where the dam's most carefully considered design decisions are concentrated.

• Hoover Dam Powerhouse — Arizona Side

  The far wing of the U-shaped powerhouse sits on the Arizona bank. The quickest way to tell the two sides apart: look up at the intake towers and find the clocks. Architect Kaufmann placed Nevada and Arizona clock faces on the towers — each showing the local time — but because Arizona does not observe Daylight Saving Time, for most of the year the two clocks show the same hour. When the Colorado River was diverted to clear the construction site, it was routed first into two tunnels on the Arizona side; the Nevada tunnels were kept open as high-water backup. What looks like the dam's symmetrical other half carries its own distinct history in every detail.

• Power Distribution

  The electricity Hoover Dam generates has never simply been sold to the nearest buyer. From the start, it was allocated — contractually, by Congress — to specific customers. The original fifty-year power sales contracts were authorized by Congress in 1934 and ran from 1937 to 1987, with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Southern California Edison operating the facility under those original terms. Who could use the dam's power, and how much, was settled by a sequence of legal agreements spanning decades.

  Sources: en.wikipedia.org

• Hoover Dam Visitor Center

  The visitor center sits above the Nevada abutment — described at its original opening as "… 🔒 Unlock the full guide

  Sources: usbr.gov · hydro.org

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