The gantry crane is used to install stoplogs and remove underwater gates for maintenance. Look over the edge . . . We next move to the elevator on the crest of the dam. The trip takes just over one minute. As you exit from the elevator, you will enter one of the dam's many galleries.
Galleries are necessary in concrete dams for inspection purposes.
The grass provides a cooling effect, much the same as an evaporative cooler, which aids in reducing temperatures inside the powerhouse. The square manholes are access points used to periodically inspect expansion joints in the penstocks, which lie 20 feet below the grass. A water trough at the base of the dam returns water to the river which seeps through the dam. The Glen Canyon power plant has 8 electric generators that were originally installed between 1964 and 1966. The generators at Glen Canyon are called hydroelectric generators because water coming from Lake Powell provides the initial energy.