LAKE MEAD NATIONAL RECREATION AREA, ARIZONA - JUNE 15: The Arizona Intake Towers (L) and Nevada Intake Towers on the upstream side of the Hoover Dam are shown on June 15, 2021 in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Arizona. Last week, The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reported that Lake Mead, North America's largest artificial reservoir, dropped to 1,071.53 feet above sea level, the lowest it's been since being filled in 1937 after the construction of the Hoover Dam. The declining water levels are a result of a nearly continuous drought for the past two decades coupled with increased water demands in the Southwestern United States. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Erie Canal (Original Caption) Lockport, Erie Canal.

August 3, 2007. Minneapolis, Minnesota. Investigators move cautiously amid the rubble of the 35W bridge that lies in pieces in the Mississippi River.

Why the Construction of the Panama Canal Was So Difficult—and Deadly

How the Transcontinental Railroad Affected America's Communities of Color

Colonel George E Waring, American engineer and sanitarian who revolutionised street cleaning in New York. Late nineteenth century portrait. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Engineering

Engineering Archives | HISTORY

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HISTORY

1843

America’s Founding Fathers decided that one elected civilian—the U.S. president—would lead the executive branch of the federal government, a governmental structure that has remained in place for more than 200 years.

U.S. Presidents

The 1960s was one of the most tumultuous and divisive decades in world history. The era was marked by the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and antiwar protests, countercultural movements, political assassinations and the emerging "generation gap."

1960s

In the early 20th century, America was flexing its economic and political muscle on the international stage. The era was defined by the temperance movement, Progressive-era activism, the sinking of the Titanic and World War I.

Early 20th Century U.S.

1970

1959

1965

1955

Inventions from the telephone to the Model T and the computer have defined human history, and inventors like Leonardo da Vinci, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Eli Whitney and Alexander Graham Bell have transformed our society.

Inventions & Science

The 1950s were a decade marked by the post-World War II boom, the dawn of the Cold War and the civil rights movement in the United States. At this time the U.S. economy was booming and more (mostly white) Americans could afford new cars, suburban houses and other consumer goods. But the 1950s also saw great conflict and division, from the nascent civil rights movement to the crusade against communism at home and abroad in the Korean War.

1950s

Though the 19th century saw the rise of populism, the labor movement and Jacksonian democracy, it also ushered in the Gilded Age, when men like Cornelius Vanderbilt and J. P. Morgan wielded vast control over politics and business.

19th Century

Landmarks and monuments, the physical record of human civilization, include spectacular structures like the Eiffel Tower, Mount Rushmore, the Panama Canal, the Brooklyn Bridge and more.

Landmarks

1937

The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939. Explore topics on the era, from the stock market crash of 1929, to the Dust Bowl, to FDR’s response to the economic calamity—the New Deal.

Great Depression

Natural disasters and changes in the environment, such as global warming, the San Francisco Earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, the Galveston Hurricane, the Krakatoa eruption and others, have profoundly shaped human history. Explore both the sudden and long-term impacts of natural and human-made disasters.

Natural Disasters & Environment

Africa is a large and diverse continent that extends from South Africa northward to the Mediterranean Sea. The continent makes up one-fifth of the total land surface of Earth. Widely recognized as the birthplace of humankind, Africa saw the rise of great kingdoms, faced the trans-Atlantic slave trade, colonization and Apartheid.

Engineering

Topics

Erie Canal

Los Angeles Aqueduct

George Waring

Hoover Dam

Stories

Why the Construction of the Panama Canal Was So Difficult—and Deadly

How Interstate Highways Gutted Communities—and Reinforced Segregation

The Transcontinental Railroad’s Dark Costs: Exploited Labor, Stolen Lands

7 of History’s Most Devastating Bridge Collapses

This Day in History

St. Lawrence Seaway opened

Golden Gate Bridge opens

Aswan High Dam completed

Future president William McKinley is born

William Cobb demonstrates first solar-powered car

Ralph Nader’s “Unsafe at Any Speed” hits bookstores