Hoover Dam straddles the Colorado river at the Nevada-Arizona border. Its sides grip the edges of Black Canyon; its back strains to contain the deep reservoir behind it. At 726.4 feet high, the dam rises more than 70 stories above the powerhouses at its base and contains enough concrete to build a sidewalk four feet wide and three inches thick around the entire planet. The artificial lake it created can contain enough water to cover the entire state of Pennsylvania a foot deep.

An army of workers raised this prodigy in rugged and desolate country, where summer temperatures often reached 130. Officially, about 100 people died building it. They were killed by falling rocks or in dynamite explosions; they were run over by trucks and crushed by heavy equipment; they died in falls from canyon walls, or from heat exhaustion. Contrary to persistent rumor, none of them are entombed in the dam.

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