People who have visited Hoover Dam in the past will notice something very different about the way it looks in this recent photo -- no traffic! The road across the top of the dam is now closed to traffic and is used only by pedestrians.
Until the bypass bridge across the canyon just below the dam was opened in October 2010, highway 93, the main highway between Phoenix and Las Vegas, went right across the top of the dam. It was a bottleneck, always full of traffic that presented a danger the tourists walking across the dam and lining up for tours.
Construction of the bypass bridge became a higher priority after the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001. The dam was considered a possible target and the government starting inspecting some of the trucks driving across the dam. It is safer, and a lot more pleasant, not to have any traffic on the dam.
Check out an additional glimpse of photos of the beauty and mystery of Easter Island at Viva la Voyage!
5 comments:
From the angle looking down on the top of the dam, this photo must have been taken from the new bypass bridge. A challenge from your photo, however, is that it is impossible to get a photo of Hoover Dam from that angle without power transmission poles cutting across the photo. That is one of the byproducts of the dam being a hydroelectric project.
I've crossed that dam many times sometimes waiting in a line of traffic for 40 minutes to an hour.
I'm enjoying this series -- thanks for sharing.
Great info and photos. Learning a lot with this series.
A very impressive picture! And it makes me feel like wanting to cross the dam as a pedestrian.
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