Why is the Hoover Dam considered a wonder of the world?

Hoover Dam is as tall as a 60-story building. It was the highest dam in the world when it was completed in 1935. Its base is as thick as two football fields are long. Each spillway, designed to let floodwaters pass without harming the dam itself, can handle the volume of water that flows over Niagara Falls.



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Today, the Hoover Dam is the second highest dam in the country and the 18th highest in the world. It generates more than four billion kilowatt-hours a year -- that's enough to serve 1.3 million people! Here's how this dam stacks up against some of the biggest dams in the world.

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The Hoover Dam has been called the Eighth Wonder of the World, comparable to the Great Pyramids of Egypt, and “a vision in the desert.” In the 1940s, the Hoover Powerplant was the largest hydroelectric installation in the world.

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Of the original Seven Wonders of the World, only one—the Great Pyramids of Giza—still exists.

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The Amber Room, often referred to as the “Eighth Wonder of the World”, was one of Russia's most priceless works of art until it was looted by Nazi Germany and lost after the conclusion of WW II.

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While there is no door in the middle of the dam, there are several access points and tunnels that allow workers and maintenance crews to access different parts of the structure. It is an important part of the dam's infrastructure, ensuring that it can continue to function properly and safely for many years to come.

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World's Tallest Dam Today, Hoover Dam still ranks in the top 20 of the tallest dams in the world, but only in the concrete gravity and arch categories. Many other rock and earthfill dams have surpassed Hoover in height.

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But Joseph Stevens, author of “Hoover Dam: An American Adventure,” says he doesn't think a project like the Hoover Dam would get off the ground if it were attempted today. “Worker safety rules and environmental impact assessments would make the Hoover Dam too expensive.”

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Of the original Seven Wonders of the World, only one—the Great Pyramids of Giza—still exists. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Temple of Artemis, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia and the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus have all faded to dust and memory.

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Only the Pyramids at Giza (built in the mid-third millennium B.C.) remains intact today. Although five of the others have disappeared, or are in ruins, enough documentary and archaeological evidence is available to confirm that they once stood proud, and are not the product of hearsay or legend.

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The oldest operational dam in the world, the Lake Homs Dam in Syria, was built around 1300. The masonry gravity dam is over one mile long, 23 feet high, and creates Lake Homs, which still supplies water to the people of Homs today.

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Parker Dam is a concrete arch structure commonly called the 'deepest dam in the world'.

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Great Pyramid of Giza, in El Giza, Egypt, the earliest of the wonders to be completed, as well as the only one that still exists in the present day. Colossus of Rhodes, in the harbor of the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name.

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The Eiffel Tower is not considered one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. It was a finalist in the contest held by the New 7 Wonders Foundation, however, it was not selected.

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The other six ancient wonders, including the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria, have all been destroyed or lost over time. What are the 7 new wonders for the world?

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