Deconstructing History: Hoover Dam - HISTORY

Did you know that the Hoover Dam supplies electricity to more than 20 million people? Get all the facts on this marvel of engineering.

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On September 30, 1935, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes formally dedicates the Hoover Dam during a ceremony attended by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The dam was built by thousands of workers in one of America's most inhospitable environments.

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On October 18, 1931, as the nation faces a deepening depression, President Herbert Hoover announces in his radio address the inauguration of a six-week campaign to raise local relief funds to aid the unemployed.

In a This Day in History video, learn that on July 7, 1930, construction began on the Hoover Dam. Twenty-thousand unemployed laborers happily took on the job, but it was a grueling and dangerous task between the scorching desert heat and constant dynamite blasts. When finished, Hoover was the largest dam in the world, standing 726 feet high.

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