An Awesome Sight

After a night of wind and rain, the day dawned warm and with only "Microsoft" clouds, so we hopped into the truck and headed for Hoover Dam and the Memorial Bridge.  I was not entirely correct when I named the bridge the Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge yesterday, as I was reading the sign as I passed at 60 per, but today we got a closer look and here's the official name:

My apologies to the family of the former Governor of the state of Nevada.  Mr. O'Callaghan was a boxer in his younger days, and so I don't want any trouble with him.....

We climbed a trail/path to the bridge from a parking lot,

and marveled at the engineering and construction work that went into the project.

The longest columns are 290 feet tall, poured in place with slip forms and continuous rebar.  Each section of column was poured and when cured the form was lifted up into position to pour the next section.  There was 10,000,000 pounds of reinforcing steel (rebar) used in the bridge, and the concrete was specified to be a 10,000 psi formula.  For reference, our typical residential sidewalks around our houses are about 1,500 psi.  And the bridge still rocks and rumbles when a truck passes over it!

In the above pic, you can see the pedestrian walkway on the east side of the bridge.  Here is what you see from mid-span:

Hoover Dam looks like a toy from this height!  Tours of the dam are once again being offered, and so we drove down to check it out.  Unfortunately, it was a bit pricey, and we had done the tour some years ago, so we decided to skip it.  We did get a couple of good pics, though.

This is a view of the Memorial Bridge from just in front of the Visitors Center at Hoover Dam.

This is Lake Mead behind the dam.  We've been over the dam in years past when the water level was at the lowest ring visible on the intake towers.  The water level is significantly lower now, I would guess about 40 feet lower.  That's a lot of water when you consider the surface area of the lake.








It's getting colder this afternoon as the predicted cold front moves through.  We noticed snow on the hilltops over Hoover Dam, but couldn't get a pic because of the clouds.  It's supposed to warm up over the next few days. Let's hope so!