Da Bridge!! Da Bridge is almost done

 

Here are a couple of pics of the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge we keep talking about on the Podcast.  When this 1,900 foot span is completed later this year, it will replace having to drive across the Hoover Dam and getting stranded in the long lines at the security checkpoints as well as having to deal with those hairpin turns on the Arizona side of the Dam.   The drive between Phoenix and Las Vegas will have one less headache!

The bridge was the first concrete-steel composite arch bridge built in the United States, and it incorporates the widest concrete arch in the Western Hemisphere. At 840 feet (260 m) above the Colorado River, it is the second-highest bridge in the United States, following the Royal Gorge Bridge. It is also the world’s highest concrete arch bridge. The Hoover Dam Bypass project was completed within budget at a cost of $240 million; the bridge portion cost $114 million (2010 prices). – Wikipedia

In case you were wondering:

  • Only one construction worker was killed on the job – November 28, 2008 Sherman Jones died from lacerations on his chest and heart and liver due to blunt force trauma injuries.
  • The actual name of the bridge is the Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.

Mike O’Callaghan was a decorated Korean War veteran and was governor of Nevada from 1971 to 1979. He served as executive editor at the Las Vegas Sun  newspaper. He suffered a heart attack and died on March 5, 2004.

Pat Tillman was an Arizona State University and Arizona Cardinals football player who gave up his multi million-dollar career in the National Football League to enlist in the U.S. Army on May 2002 in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. He joined the United States Army Rangers and served multiple tours in combat before he was killed by friendly fire in the mountains of Afghanistan on April 22, 2004.

Book a Hoover Dam Tour Here

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*