Rachel Maddow About the Damned Dam? (Did Big Government Build the Hoover Dam?)

National Review ^ | 11/03/2011 | Arthur Herman

[Rannug]

LOL

[csmusaret]

Notice it was named for Herbert Hoover (who started the project) and not FDR>

[chiller]

It’s nothing but miles of barren, hostile, rocky desert and unnavigable mountains in every direction. His description is accurate.

[chiller]

....and finally, I’m glad author Herman didn’t let Maddow get away with her “only big government” lie. I hope this finds its way back to her.

[Rummyfan]

Hoover Dam was the great feat of American business.

Someone should stuff this article in Mad-Cow's mouth.

[wideminded]

The fact is that big government taxes built the Hoover Dam.

[Paladin2]

"Four and a half million cubic yards of concrete — enough to build a two-lane highway from San Francisco to New York — and 19 million pounds of reinforcing steel somehow had to be moved into the middle of the Nevada wilderness to construct both the dam and a 1.2-million-horsepower electric plant."

My understanding of the design for the dam was that the safety factor was TEN. The folks behind building it wanted to be able to build more and didn't want the first one to have any issues.

[bjc]

Great piece. A time line would be useful as would a reference.

[winodog]

And it was called Boulder Dam before a sorry politician got his name attached

[Mr. K]

duhhhhhhhhhhh so was the moon project

So... the government gets a couple of things done right

I guess it must be the 99% of government programs filled with waste, fraud, and incompetance that give the others a bad name.

[csmusaret]

It was called Boulder because no one wanted to give Hoover any credit for anything positive.

[Sam Clements]

It was the democRATS who changed the name from Hoover to Boulder because they wanted to smear Hoover’s name. The name was later changed back to Hoover Dam.

[DJ MacWoW]

Wake Up And Donate!

Click The Pic

Let's Make The Bar Yellow!

[j_tull]

I love the documentaries about the Hoover dam. Designed with T-squares and slide rules, supervised by engineers who wore funny uniforms and built by hand. Awesome.

[ken5050]

Over 100 men died during the construction...I think that 30+ died building the Golden Gate Bridge..

[Lazlo in PA]

maybe they should dam the Ohio River and flood Chicago

Looks like someone got started a little early this morning. You gotta ratchet down the Old Crow in your coffee.

[IYAS9YAS]

His description is accurate.

The south side of the dam is attached to Arizona. Hardly the "middle" of the Nevada wilderness. Of course, the entire state is wilderness, with a few relatively tiny pockets of civilization, plus Reno and Las Vegas. ;-)

[ProtectOurFreedom]

My three kids are in college or recently graduated. I swear at least 1/3 of their friends are going into “environmental law” which is nothing but obstruction of any progress. It is dismaying that I know only one or two aspiring engineers among their friends, but maybe tens of kids moving into “environmental” work. This bodes even worse for our future.

[SF_Redux]

am only here to entertain, the easily entertained

geeeeeez

[Ratman83]

enough to build a two-lane highway from San Francisco to New York actually only enogh for about a 1000 miles of roadway.