Big Dams and Other Dreams: The Six Companies Story
The building of Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge has already been well chronicled in numerous books and documentaries as spectacular feats of engineering and costly human achievements. Other than Joseph Stevens' notableHoover Dam: An American Adventure(1988), however, most accounts barely mention the considerable and complicated business transactions, financial deals, and corporate partnerships that were required to complete these and other New Deal public works marvels in the West. Engineer Wolf details the story of the Six Companies partnership that was originally formed to build the Hoover Dam and went on to build the Bonneville and Grand Coulee Dams, lay the foundations for the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, and construct tunnels, pipelines, aqueducts, and military bases throughout the western U.S. Wolf traces the successes that were accomplished by the partners, including the Bechtes, Henry Kaiser, Marriner Eccles (who was appointed by Franklin Roosevelt to chair the Federal Reserve), and Harry Morrison of Morrison Knudsen.David Rouse