Hoover Dam: Taming the Colorado River and Powering Millions

06 March 2012

Hoover Dam at night

BOB DOUGHTY: This is Bob Doughty.

STEVE EMBER: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Hoover Dam.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: Our report today about Hoover Dam must begin with the Colorado River. This river made the dam necessary. The Colorado River begins high in the Rocky Mountains. It begins slowly, during the dark months of winter. Heavy snow falls on the Rocky Mountains.

The snow is so deep in some areas that it will stay on the ground well into the hot days of summer. But the snow does melt. Ice cold water travels down the mountains and forms several rivers -- the Gila River, the Green River, the Little Colorado, the San Juan, the Virgin and the Gunnison Rivers. These rivers link together and form the beginnings of the Colorado River. The Colorado River flows through, or provides water for, the states of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California. Then it crosses the border into Mexico.

STEVE EMBER: The Colorado River has always been extremely powerful. The river created the huge Grand Canyon. The violent water cut hundreds of meters deep into the desert floor of Arizona. The Grand Canyon is proof of the power of this great river.

The Grand Canyon was cut into the desert floor beginning thousands of years ago. But the power of this river has been demonstrated in more modern times.