The Nome daily nugget., 1934-12-31

boast For the completion of the Hoover uam will mark the conclusion of one of the greatest engineering feats of all time greater even than another of the triumphs of Uncle Sam, engineer that of digging the Panama canal-and when this gigantic mass of steel and concrete Is fin ished 1t will be the biggest structure of It's kind in the whole world.
 Not the least part of Uncle Sam's triumph will be the fact that the dam and its appurtenant works will be completed in record time. When the contractors began work April 30 1881, they were to be allowed seven years in which to finish the job. That would have meant its com pletion by April 20, 193S Right now they are nearly two years ahead of schedule and 1t is estimated that at the present rate of progress the whole thing will have been done in six years or less
 Impressive as the statistical data con nected with the Hoover dam the average person cannot get an adequate idea of the immensity of the project from abstract figures alone. Most of us poor judges of distance so it would mean little to say that the dam will have a maximum height of 730 feet above it's foundation rock, that the top of 1t will be approximately 600 feet above the level of the river and that it will raise the water surface of the river 6S4 feet.
 But let's get at it this way: if the Washington monument were set up alongside the dam and you stood on top of that monument, some one standing on top of the dam would have to let down nearly 60 yards of rope in order to pull you up to where he stood.
 Can you visualize 4,400,000 cubic yards of con- cretel Probably not But If some one told you abouea tower that was 100 feet square and rose two and a half miles in the air. you could get some idea of the amount of concrete that's going into the Hoover dam, the power plant nearby and the appurtenant works. That amount of concrete would build a standard paved high way, 16 feet wide which would extend all the way from Seattle. Wash. to Miami. Fla.
 You'll admit that 10000, ,0OO,OOO,0OO gallons of water is a considerable amount of moisture. That means sOOOO gallons for every man, woman and child in the United States. That 10,000,- OO0,OO00OO gallons is the amount of water which the reservoir created by the Hoover dam will hold They also figure 1t in acre-feet, an acrefoot being the amount of water that will cover one acre one foot deep When this reservoir is full 1t will contain 30,O00,OOO acre-feet-enough water to cover the whole state of New York to the depth of a foot.
 But enough of statistics for a moment in favor of some more general information about this gigantic project. The Hoover dam Is being built in the upper Black canyon on the Colorado river about 25 miles southeast of Las Vegas, Nev., where the river forms part of the Arizona Nevada boundary. The purposes of the project are flood control and general river regulation (fOF the COlOrduO ndS long Deen Ouc OL tHc most unruly and destructive of all the rivers in America) irrigation, silt control, domestic water supply and power development For these pur- poses the project calls not only for the con- struction of the huge dam and power plant in Black canyon but also the construction of the All-American canal in southern California.
 The total cost of the project is placed at ap- proximately $165,OO0,0O0 divided up as follows dam and reservoir, $70.600000; All-American canal $38, 0OO0; power development, $38,2OO, GOO: and interest during construction, $17,70OOOO But lest anyone think, since this Is federal project that it's construction means that many millions out of the pockets of American taxpay. CTS. let 1t be stated at once that Uncle Sam's investment in 1t Gin the form of congressional appropriations) will be repaid in full within the next 50 years from the income derived from sup plying irrigation water and from the sale of power generated in the power plant huge structure of steel and concrete, 1,260 feet long which will stand just below the dam.
 Although power development was secondary consideration in planning this project, 1t prom ises to become a very important one in the future because of the effect which cheap power will have upon modernizing community and civic life in the Southwest The plans for this power plant call for the installation of 15 turbines of ll5OO0 horse power each and two turbines of B5OO0 horse power each with 10 generators of 02.5OO kilovolt-ampere capacity each and two generators of 10000 kiloyolt-ampere capacity each The larger units exceed in size the largest vet manufactured the 83,000 horse power tur- pines and 76,5O0 kilovolt-ampere generators in