Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam stands 726 feet tall on the Colorado River at the Nevada-Arizona border, forming the boundary between Clark County, Nevada, and Mohave County, Arizona. Constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression, it remains one of the most ambitious engineering achievements in American history — built by a workforce of more than 21,000 people under brutal desert conditions to harness the seasonal floods of the Colorado River. The dam holds back Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States by volume when full, which stretches 112 miles upstream into Nevada and Arizona. The dam itself is a National Historic Landmark and its art deco styling — unusual for a utilitarian structure of this scale — reflects the optimism of the era. The Bureau of Reclamation offers two main tour options departing from the visitor center: the Powerplant Tour ($15 per person) descends by elevator into the dam itself to view the massive turbine room where 17 generators produce power for Nevada, Arizona, and California. The Hard Hat Tour ($30) offers deeper access including restricted areas and a more intimate look at the dam's internal infrastructure. The visitor center houses exhibits on dam construction history, the workers who built it, and the engineering challenges overcome. Outside, the Nevada-side observation deck and the Arizona-side viewing area provide different perspectives. The Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, completed in 2010, spans the Black Canyon 900 feet downstream and has a dedicated pedestrian walkway offering some of the most spectacular views of the dam from above. The bridge can be reached by a short walk from the Nevada side parking area. Parking fills quickly on weekdays and is essentially unavailable without a long wait by mid-morning on weekends; arriving before 9AM is strongly recommended.