Lowering 180-ton section of Penstock Pipe, Boulder Dam, 1931-1936

Hoover Dam's upstream face and intake towers from the Arizona side.

The inside of the turbine room in the Hoover Dam in the early 1930s. Site Name: Hoover Dam (dam)

The upstream face of Hoover Dam.

Hoover (Boulder) Dam, taken from the upstream side of the dam on the Nevada side. May, 1947. The intake towers, Nevada spillway house (in the background, behind the intake towers), and the Nevada spillway are visible. During the years of lobbying leading up to the passage of legislation authorizing the dam in 1928, Hoover Dam was originally referred to "Boulder Dam" or as "Boulder Canyon Dam", even though the proposed site had shifted to Black Canyon. The Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928 (BCPA) never mentions a proposed name or title for the dam. When Secretary Wilbur spoke at the ceremony starting the building of the railway between Las Vegas and the dam site on September 17, 1930, he named the dam "Hoover Dam", citing a tradition of naming dams after Presidents, though none had been so honored during their terms of office. After Hoover's election defeat in 1932 and the accession of the Roosevelt administration, Secretary Ickes ordered on May 13, 1933 that the dam be referred to as "Boulder Dam". In the following years, the n

Lowering box car of power house machinery via govenment 150-ton cableway, Boulder Dam

President Franklin D. Roosevelt stands watch on the left as two trumpeteers start the dedication ceremony for the Boulder Dam Opening of the Spillways.