Numbers
The Hoover Dam complex, the dam, powerplant and related works, holds 4.36 million cubic yards of concrete: enough to pave a 16-foot-wide highway from San Francisco to New York.
ILLUSTRATION · AIHoover Dam, its powerplant and related works contain 4,360,000 cubic yards of concrete, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates it.
The dam itself accounts for three and one-quarter million cubic yards. For the full 4,360,000 cubic yards, the Bureau offers its own comparisons: enough to pave a standard 16-foot-wide highway from San Francisco to New York City, or to build a monument 100 feet square and 2-1/2 miles high.
Built to hold back a river
The Bureau gives the maximum water pressure at the base of the dam as 45,000 pounds per square foot.
SourcesEvery claim traced
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