On vacation, I walked out onto the bridge. Date would have been about as 20:00 in the film. After watching the dumps for a half hour or so, I got chills and weak kneed when I realized the tiny specks near the concrete dump zone were actually moving and were workmen. Simply amazing.
This is the best of America. It’s amazing what this film don’t show. Like construction process of the 20 story batch plant on the side of a canyon . 18 people died in construction but thousands worked on it … It really is amazing !
My dad was an electrician who worked on the Glen Canyon dam between 1960 and its completion. We got out of school for the dedication and were able to see Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon when they visited in 1965. What a beautiful place to live and grow up. Wonderful people!
South Utah is indeed beautiful. It was, however far more naturally magnificent before the stunning canyon was turned into an artificial lake. Tragically, many thousands of irreplaceable ancient pictographs and petroglyphs, Anasazi ruins, and pieces of beautiful pottery were obliterated. Lake Powell was probably an inevitability. Still, it’s sad to reflect on what we lost as a nation.
Seeing some of those young kids in the beginning. That could have been me. (age wise) Now it's 2021...Feels like a dream, have to wake up and find out. Good doc, Doc!
My dad was one of the many truckers that helped haul dirt and rocks. We lived in Winslow Arizona at the time, my dad would go to the construction site and camped out in a tent city.
The men enjoyed a laid back atmosphere constructing Glen Canyon Dam. Unlike Hoover Dam where the men there were forced and slave driven by fast paced schedules and hardcase bosses. Yet, the dams were produced in nearly the same fashion, with nearly the same technology with some of the same men who survived Hoover Dam's construction to take part in Glen Canyon Dam's construction.
This is an amazing video, one of the best I've ever watch. These old videos give me an Erie feeling for some reason. Like crazy government nuke town testing, and top secret experiments on humans.
@@jfo738 In many cases, I would agree with you. However, millions of people benefit from the water retention in the Colorado River dam network. I will never dispute that dams have undesirable ecological impacts. However, we must consider the benefits of water supply and flood management.
The semi trucks with the distinctive sound of the Detroit Diesel never to be heard again again it was a two stroke diesel incredible power and was quite efficient.
They can. All it takes is $10B and a lot of pork barreling. You grease enough pockets and watch it take off! You don't grease enough pockets, and you'll stagnate with feasibility studies and that's about it.
@@koyotekola6916 Too many environmentalists involved now. Can't even build a golf course these days without a 3-year study on the impacts it has on the Southeast Spotted Tick.
@@WayPastCrazy2525 That's because there's lots of money to be made in environmentalism. Colleges even offer degrees in environmental studies. What used to be common sense is now years of studies, mostly to eat up money for that stamp of approval. And that approval doesn't mean squat to the environment.
@monicaosorio9564 Now look at its failure. Sadly it also killed/destroyed many animals,plants,many archeological sites. Irreversibly altering the ecosystem forever.Many Natives fish species was unable to adapt.
Four years...these days it would take longer than that just to get past all of the environmental impact statements, blue ribbon panels, litigation, political wrangling, lobbying, and bankruptcies
Only reason this one got built was a deal made with the Sierra Club. THEY sold this one down the river if the gooberment promised to shelve two others planned in Utah. Sierra Club kept their word too and doomed the bonytailed chubby sucker to extinction they own self. Even in 1959, the Sierra Club had federal court backed up to the point nothing else could get done. The video Draining Lake Powell shows LBJ with Grand Pooba of the Sierra Club for a photo op as they supposedly worked out the details, but it's just for show folks, it was lawyers that worked the deal for reals.
Lee Barnes Betty Crocker also claimed that you shouldnt salt raw meat before cooking it because it dries it out. Sure they understood a lot about ecology and the environment back then, but not as much as today.
It would never get built these days, just look at the spillway disaster in California, they knew it was going to happen but too many fat cats sat behind their mahogany desks counting the money in the states and city funds like it was their and too stingey to fix it. Then it failed and nearly cost thousands of lives!
Technology? You should go look at how the Golden Gate bridge, Oakland bay bridge as well as Hoover and Grand Coulee dams were built 30/40 years EARLIER than this.
They submerged a lot of beautiful country while doing this. Ancient petroglyphs, beautiful little side canyons (deadly in the spring) were gradually overtaken by the rising waters. I got to explore a bit of this country with my dad and brother in the late 50’s early 60’s. Terry and Renny Russell published some pictures of Glenn Canyon in a nice little book called “On the Loose.” I imagine it’s out of print now but you might find a used copy.
No rebar needed. The strength of a concrete dam comes from it's thickness, it's arched shape and tremendous weight. This concrete has 4 times the tensile strength of the sandstone it is replacing.
An awesome project that destroyed many archeological sites,many anumaks,fish,&plants. It forever changed the ecosystem. Now look at the damaged reservoir. Yeah great project
an amazing and perfect engineering of constructing a dam at those days..but see man involvement is how much affecting the earth and nature and thus natural ecosystem..
Both Hoover and Glen Canyon Dams are incredible but they totally under estimated the power of the the water through the spillways when we almost lost Glen canyon Dam. Hoover Dam's spillways were badly damaged as well. That's why alternate plans to dump excess water from Lake Mead was put in place.
Riding a jetski around antelope island on Memorial day weekend wasn't my best idea. I've never been so sore from waves. The cliff walls didn't let the waves dissipate so they just bounced around and yeah it wasn't fun on a jetski after an hour lol
The days before OSHA would be shitting themselves watching these real MEN taking their lives in their collective hands, with little regard to safety regulations! These men are the unsung American heroes!!! May God bless and keep them!
Right?! You're not a real man until you're deaf, blind in one eye and have leukemia because you didn't want to wear "bitch mittens" while working with chemicals.
From a 3rd person perspective that easy to say the problem tho is that whoever died in the project were probably family men and possible war vets i mean that why safety is in place now better to lose a limb than a life
Very interesting, I just watched the guy showing in 3D I was disapointed. I also watched USA dam daster but this dam will safe because even dam break down surrounding won't be affected.
Sadly you are mistaken about the failure. There is a small community in the base of the Grand Canyon. That would be wiped out. The Hoover dam is down stream. That could be topped and or destroyed. This would affect 10's of millions. The communities would be wiped out. The millions that depend on the water and power would be SOL.
Lake Mead is so low these days that Hoover Dam might actually survive a failure of Glen Canyon dam now. When Lake Mead was full, Hoover Dam would have been overtopped, and there would have been nothing to do from Las Vegas to the Sea of Cortez but just get everyone out of the way.
i like laos... but no heavy industry and big or mega projects in the country... it will be destroyed! light industry and tourism is the future... protect its environment Laos 🇱🇦!
can someone tell me what he crushed ice is getting mixed into the concrete to slow the shrink cracks in the brutal hot weather or are there pipes in the forms with ice water runnign through it to slow the shrink cracks?? thanks
No, still quite common to use large uncrushed aggregate in mass concrete structures. The stuff you get from your local batch plant is for structural uses, and typically has higher strength, workability and durability requirements.
This video is of Glen Canyon dam. There are two major dams along the Colorado river in Arizona. One is glen Canyon Dam where the Colorado river enters Arizona from Utah. This dam is upstream from the grand canyon and the reservoir it creates is known as lake Powell. You have to cross this dam in order to get to the north rim of the grand canyon from the I-40. The second and larger dam is Hoover dam which is downstream from the Grand Canyon this dam is on the boarder of Arizona and Nevada just north of Laughlin NV, and Bullhead city AZ. The reservoir that Hoover dam creates is known as lake Mead.
Where oh where did +Cocacola Gaming+ comment go?? He was so butt hurt about being wrong that his comment is no longer here. Way to own up to your I.Q., hillary supporter. Just pretend you never spewed your B.S. here and delete your unintelligent comment. P.S. You are welcome for the History lesson.
Ok, I have never worked in construction. Can someone explain me the scene following 2:30? Why did construction workers throw white-hot steel parts at each other?
Yes . those are rivets. Heated they are soft and malleable...therefore easier to hammer into its respective hole. After cooling, it makes for a VERY secure connection.
georgejohnsmith White hot steel rivets are part of almost every extra large steel structure site. When these massive rivets are placed in a drilled hole they can be riveted or beaten with a very powerful rivet hammer. They are much easier to be beaten in place when they are soften by white hot heat. Sky scraper construction uses the same methods as do very large ship builders. Hot rivets are even used in the construction of large aircraft.
@@timmayer8723 Tim, you're about 50 years behind the times. Glen Canyon bridge was one of the last major structures to use rivets - honestly I was shocked they still used rivets on that bridge - welding was common by the late '50s and has been standard practice for decades. Problems with rivets is they are difficult to predict/test if they are installed correctly, and have long since been replaced by welding or structural bolts. Bay Bridge and Golden Gate bridges (built in the '30s) removed millions of rivets and replaced with structural bolts for seismic safety upgrades.
OK, The Glen canyon dam impounds the Colorado river to make Lake Powell, Hoover dam also impounds the Colorado river to make lake Mead. When the mighty Colorado finely makes it to the gulf of California it is just a trickle, with no resemblance to the mighty river it once was. And at some point in time they will both fill up with silt and the river will run over the top of them in a great water fall. Hope this helps, check them out on google earth. See, A River Ran Through It ...Draining Lake Powell
Huge project. Thanks for posting. Done back in the days when Men were Men and the " Tree Huggers " didn't exist. Won't ever see another project like this. Everyone says roads and bridges are falling apart. Environmentalists saw to that. Way too many rules and laws now..... Good luck getting anything fixed now.
This was back when everything that makes a man, a man was valued. Back when this country needed masculinity and testosterone to be build it and establish it. This country needed men with flowing testosterone to work hard and risk their lives to build brigdes, dams, buildings, etc. And now, the male is just underappreciated and obsolete, bad times we live in now to be a man.
All the double trailer rigs hauling cement on the highway were Autocar. My dad ran the trucking operation between Clarkdale and Page from Cottonwood AZ.
