First, if you ever come to the dam, take the tour (free). If you happen to be in the area for the night, see the laser show. It's not the greatest but certainly don't make special arrangements for it!
A few interesting facts (to me) about the dam.
One mile across. It looks huge but doesn't really seem like it's a mile across.
After you take the tour and learn about the dam it is absolutely AMAZING (considering all the technology we have today) that this dam was built in the 1930's!
Took eleven years to complete
Cannot begin to tell you the facts about electricity except that it can put out an awesome amount. Generates more power than a million locomotives. It is the country's largest hydroelectric project but is #4 in the world, soon to be #5.
It irrigates 500,000 acres of land which explains the miles of wheat fields we saw.
In 1941 the dam was still under construction when Pearl Harbor was bombed. The power plant immediately went to work and sent power to the West to speed up production of planes, to the east to Spokane for production of aluminum and to the south for work on the atomic bomb.
Largest concrete structure in the world. There is enough concrete in the dam to build TWO standard six-foot wide sidewalks around the world at the equator!
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