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would carry off the smaller pieces of debris and a dam would be built incorporating the remaining rubble in 1922 after considering it for several years the reclamation service finally rejected the proposal citing doubts about the unproven technique and questions as to whether it would in fact save money 12 planning and agreements edit edit source in 1922 the reclamation service presented a report calling for the development of a dam on the colorado river for flood control and electric power generation the report was principally authored by davis and was called the fall davis report after interior secretary albert fall the fall davis report cited use of the colorado river as a federal concern because the river s basin covered several states and the river eventually entered mexico 14 though the fall davis report called for a dam at or near boulder canyon the reclamation service which was renamed the bureau of reclamation the following year found that canyon unsuitable 15 one potential site at boulder canyon was bisected by a geologic fault two others were so narrow there was no space for a construction camp at the bottom of the canyon 15 or for a spillway the service investigated black canyon and found it ideal a railway could be laid from the railhead in las vegas to the top of the dam site 16 despite the site change the dam project was referred to as the boulder canyon project 17 sketch of the proposed dam site and reservoir c 1921 with little guidance on water allocation from the supreme court proponents of the dam feared endless litigation delph carpenter a colorado attorney proposed that the seven states which fell within the river s basin california nevada arizona utah new mexico colorado and wyoming form an interstate compact with the approval of congress 18 such compacts were authorized by article i of the united states constitution but had never been concluded among more than two states in 1922 representatives of seven states met with then secretary of commerce herbert hoover 19 initial talks produced no result but when the supreme court handed down the wyoming v colorado decision undermining the claims of the upstream states they became anxious to reach an agreement the resulting colorado river compact was signed on november 24 1922 20 legislation to authorize the dam was introduced repeatedly by two california republicans representative phil swing and senator hiram johnson but representatives from other parts of the country considered the project as hugely expensive and one that would mostly benefit california the 1927 mississippi flood made midwestern and southern congressmen and senators more sympathetic toward the dam project on march 12 1928 the failure of the st francis dam constructed by the city of los angeles caused a disastrous flood that killed up to 600 people as that dam was a curved gravity type 21 similar in design to the arch gravity as was proposed for the black canyon dam opponents claimed that the black canyon dam s safety could not be guaranteed congress authorized a board of engineers to review plans for the proposed dam the colorado river board found the project feasible but warned that should the dam fail every downstream colorado river community would be destroyed and that the river might change course and empty into the salton sea the board cautioned to avoid such possibilities the proposed dam should be constructed on conservative if not ultra conservative lines 22 on december 21 1928 president coolidge signed the bill authorizing the dam 23 the boulder canyon project act 24 appropriated 165 million for the project along with the downstream imperial dam and all american canal a replacement for beatty s canal entirely on the u s side of the border 25 it also permitted the compact to go into effect when at least six of the seven states approved it this occurred on march 6 1929 with utah s ratification arizona did not approve it until 1944 26 design preparation and contracting edit edit source even before congress approved the boulder canyon project the bureau of reclamation was considering what kind of dam should be used officials eventually decided on a massive concrete arch gravity dam the design of which was overseen by the bureau s chief design engineer john l savage the monolithic dam would be thick at the bottom and thin near the top and would present a convex face towards the water above the dam the curving arch of the dam would transmit the water s force into the abutments in this case the rock walls of the canyon the wedge shaped dam would be 660 ft 200 m thick at the bottom narrowing to 45 ft 14 m at the top leaving room for a highway connecting nevada and arizona 27 on january 10 1931 the bureau made the bid documents available to interested parties at five dollars a copy the government was to provide the materials and the contractor was to prepare the site and build the dam the dam was described in minute detail covering 100 pages of text and 76 drawings a 2 million bid bond was to accompany each bid the winner would have to post a 5 million performance bond the contractor had seven years to build the dam or penalties would ensue 28 the wattis brothers heads of the utah construction company were interested in bidding on the project but lacked the money for the performance bond they lacked sufficient resources even in combination with their longtime partners morrison knudsen which employed the nation s leading dam builder frank crowe they formed a joint venture to bid for the project with pacific bridge company of portland oregon henry j kaiser w a bechtel company of san francisco macdonald kahn ltd of los angeles and the j f shea company of portland oregon 29 the joint venture was called six companies inc as bechtel and kaiser were considered one company for purposes of six in the name the name was descriptive and was an inside joke among the san franciscans in the bid where six companies was also a chinese benevolent association in the city 30 there were three valid bids and six companies bid of 48 890 955 was the lowest within 24 000 of the confidential government estimate of what the dam would cost to build and five million dollars less than the next lowest bid 31 the city of las vegas had lobbied hard to be the headquarters for the dam construction closing its many speakeasies when the decision maker secretary of the interior ray wilbur came to town instead wilbur announced in early 1930 that a model city was to be built in the desert near the dam site this town became known as boulder city nevada construction of a rail line joining las vegas and the dam site began in september 1930 32 construction edit edit source labor force edit edit source workers on a jumbo rig used for drilling the hoover dam s tunnels apache indians employed as high scalers on the construction of hoover dam nara soon after the dam was authorized increasing numbers of unemployed people converged on southern nevada las vegas then a small city of some 5 000 saw between 10 000 and 20 000 unemployed descend on it 33 a government camp was established for surveyors and other personnel near the dam site this soon became surrounded by a squatters camp known as mckeeversville the camp was home to men hoping for work on the project together with their families 34 another camp on the flats along the colorado river was officially called williamsville but was known to its inhabitants as ragtown 35 when construction began six companies hired large numbers of workers with more than 3 000 on the payroll by 1932 36 and with employment peaking at 5 251 in july 1934 37 mongolian chinese labor was prevented by the construction contract 37 while the number of black people employed by six companies never exceeded thirty mostly lowest pay scale laborers in a segregated crew who were issued separate water buckets 38 as part of the contract six companies inc was to build boulder city to house the workers the original timetable called for boulder city to be built before the dam project began but president hoover ordered work on the dam to begin in march 1931 rather than in october 39 the company built bunkhouses attached to the canyon wall to house 480 single men at what became known as river camp workers with families were left to provide their own accommodations until boulder city could be completed 40 and many lived in ragtown 41 the site of hoover dam endures extremely hot weather and the summer of 1931 was especially torrid with the daytime high averaging 119 9 f 48 8 c 42 sixteen workers and other riverbank residents died of heat prostration between june 25 and july 26 1931 43 mabel macferran rockwell was the only woman involved in the design and installation of the power generating machinery for hoover dam 44 she worked on the economic design of the company s transmission for the dam which was the basis for her prize winning paper power limits of 220 kv transmission lines co authored with a a kroneberg 45 the industrial workers of the world iww or wobblies though much reduced from their heyday as militant labor organizers in the early years of the century hoped to unionize the six companies workers by capitalizing on their discontent they sent eleven organizers 46 several of whom were arrested by las vegas police 47 on august 7 1931 the company cut wages for all tunnel workers although the workers sent the organizers away not wanting to be associated with the wobblies they formed a committee to represent them with the company the committee drew up a list of demands that evening and presented them to crowe the following morning he was noncommittal the workers hoped that crowe the general superintendent of the job would be sympathetic instead he gave a scathing interview to a newspaper describing the workers as malcontents 48 on the morning of the 9th crowe met with the committee and told them that management refused their demands was stopping all work and was laying off the entire work force except for a few office workers and carpenters the workers were given until 5 p m to vacate the premises concerned that a violent confrontation was imminent most workers took their paychecks and left for las vegas to await developments 49 two days later the remainder were talked into leaving by law enforcement on august 13 the company began hiring workers again and two days later the strike was called off 50 while the workers received none of their demands the company guaranteed there would be no further reductions in wages living conditions began to improve as the first residents moved into boulder city in late 1931 51 a second labor action took place in july 1935 as construction on the dam wound down when a six companies manager altered working times to force workers to take lunch on their own time workers responded with a strike emboldened by crowe s reversal of the lunch decree workers raised their demands to include a 1 per day raise the company agreed to ask the federal government to supplement the pay but no money was forthcoming from washington the strike ended 52 river diversion edit edit source before the dam could be built the colorado river needed to be diverted away from the construction site to accomplish this four diversion tunnels were driven through the canyon walls two on the nevada side and two on the arizona side these tunnels were 56 ft 17 m in diameter 53 their combined length was nearly 16 000 ft or more than 3 miles 5 km 54 the contract required these tunnels to be completed by october 1 1933 with a 3 000 per day fine to be assessed for any delay to meet the deadline six companies had to complete work by early 1933 since only in late fall and winter was the water level in the river low enough to safely divert 55 tunneling began at the lower portals of the nevada tunnels in may 1931 shortly afterward work began on two similar tunnels in the arizona canyon wall in march 1932 work began on lining the tunnels with concrete first the base or invert was poured gantry cranes running on rails through the entire length of each tunnel were used to place the concrete the sidewalls were poured next movable sections of steel forms were used for the sidewalls finally using pneumatic guns the overheads were filled in the concrete lining is 3 feet 1 m thick reducing the finished tunnel diameter to 50 ft 15 m 54 the river was diverted into the two arizona tunnels on november 13 1932 the nevada tunnels were kept in reserve for high water this was done by exploding a temporary cofferdam protecting the arizona tunnels while at the same time dumping rubble into the river until its natural course was blocked 56 following the completion of the dam the entrances to the two outer diversion tunnels were sealed at the opening and halfway through the tunnels with large concrete plugs the downstream halves of the tunnels following the inner plugs are now the main bodies of the spillway tunnels 54 the inner diversion tunnels were plugged at approximately one third of their length beyond which they now carry steel pipes connecting the intake towers to the power plant and outlet works 53 the inner tunnels outlets are equipped with gates that can be closed to drain the tunnels for maintenance 53 groundworks rock clearance and grout curtain edit edit source to protect the construction site from the colorado river and to facilitate the river s diversion two cofferdams were constructed work on the upper cofferdam began in september 1932 even though the river had not yet been diverted 57 the cofferdams were designed to protect against the possibility of the river s flooding a site at which two thousand men might be at work and their specifications were covered in the bid documents in nearly as much detail as the dam itself the upper cofferdam was 96 ft 29 m high and 750 feet 230 m thick at its base thicker than the dam itself it contained 650 000 cubic yards 500 000 m 3 of material 58 looking down at high scalers above the colorado river when the cofferdams were in place and the construction site was drained of water excavation for the dam foundation began for the dam to rest on solid rock it was necessary to remove accumulated erosion soils and other loose materials in the riverbed until sound bedrock was reached work on the foundation excavations was completed in june 1933 during this excavation approximately 1 500 000 cu yd 1 100 000 m 3 of material was removed since the dam was an arch gravity type the side walls of the canyon would bear the force of the impounded lake therefore the side walls were also excavated to reach virgin rock as weathered rock might provide pathways for water seepage 57 shovels for the excavation came from the marion power shovel company 59 the men who removed this rock were called high scalers while suspended from the top of the canyon with ropes the high scalers climbed down the canyon walls and removed the loose rock with jackhammers and dynamite falling objects were the most common cause of death on the ...