New Hoover Dam Bridge Makes America's Heart Soar

BOULDER CITY, Nev. (Oct. 15) -- It looms.

That's the only accurate way to describe it. Below is the mighty Hoover Dam, for 75 years the pinnacle of this nation's technological ingenuity and prowess and still among the largest structures of its type on the planet. And now there's a companion piece almost as stunning: a looming, stately, horizontally symmetrical bridge spanning the vast chasm 890 feet above the Colorado River that will reroute thousands of cars now crossing and jamming up the dam's two-lane road.

The Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, named for a former Nevada governor and a football star-turned-soldier from Arizona slain in Afghanistan, opens to traffic next week at the states' border about 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas. It cost $240 million, was built in five years and could not have arrived at a better moment for a nation and region whose psyche has been pummeled by a prolonged, devastating recession.

"It makes me feel good as an American," said Jerry Couden, a residential general contractor from Milford, Conn., who, like millions of Vegas tourists each year, made the drive out to the landmark site. He appreciated the dam, but was heartened by the bridge. "Look what we did then and now look at what this is. It's a tremendous feat. It is cool to see."

By the numbers, the bridge -- christened Thursday with a ceremony that featured appearances by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood -- is impressive. At 1,050 feet, its support arch is the longest arch in the Western Hemisphere, holding up 1,900 feet of roadway that also leans on 300-foot-long concrete pillars. Those columns are some of tallest in the world.

It is the second highest bridge in America, behind the Royal Gorge Bridge that spans the Arkansas River in Colorado, and seventh in the world. Four Chinese bridges and one in Papua New Guinea are taller than the O'Callaghan-Tillman Bridge.

More than 1,200 laborers and 300 engineers worked on the bridge; one worker died in an accident during construction.

Tourists will be able to park in a designated lot on the Nevada side and climb stairs to walk the bridge, which has a sidewalk on the side facing the dam. The retaining wall is 54 inches high, so pedestrians can snap photos from a spectacular vantage point.

"The Hoover Dam is the greatest civil engineering achievement in America's history," said Dave Zanatell, bypass bridge project manager with the Federal Highway Administration. "Our goal was not to outdo or outshine it. Our goal was to, in a respectful way, do something that would be great for our generation and that would stand beside Hoover Dam in a respectful and quality way that would become a part of Hoover's legacy."

The idea of the bridge has been kicked around since the 1960s because the top of the Hoover Dam has served as a narrow two-lane passage that is the fastest route between northwest Arizona and Las Vegas. The access to the dam from each direction is a treacherously winding route, but massive trucks and passenger vehicles shared and navigated it for decades.

During the day, when thousands of tourists flock to the dam, the interaction between traffic and pedestrians has resulted in an accident rate three times that of a normal roadway, Zanatell said.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the federal government feared a terrorist with a truck bomb could attack the dam, potentially flooding the region and disrupting water and power supplies to several states. Semi-trucks were banned from bridge and forced to take an alternate route to Las Vegas that is more than 40 miles longer.

Plans for a bypass bridge, which solves that dilemma, were accelerated after the attacks.

"It may not seem like a lot, but 40 miles is a lot of gas and a lot of time, and that time and money is passed on to people in the cost of shipping goods," said Randy Trumbull, a long-haul trucker from Virginia who was eating lunch Wednesday in Boulder City, the first town on the Nevada border. "This is good for America."

It also may be good for America's spirit. The Hoover Dam was built in the 1930s in the heart of the Great Depression and was seen as an example of the nation's can-do spirit. Today, many worry that the country's best days are over and are looking for evidence to the contrary.

"There are basically two engineering wonders constructed at times when our country was looking at itself and wondering what the future held," said Colleen Dwyer, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the dam. "We're looking at what can be done even at these worst of times to make these wonderful structures come to be, to create something new and different which enables America to keep moving ahead. That's the parallel."

To be fair, that parallel has flaws. The dam's impact on the entire region in terms of controlling the flow of the mighty Colorado River and generating power enabled cities like Las Vegas and farm regions in Southern California to flourish. The bridge provides no such transformative effect.

Still, Zanatell believes the fact that the project was done on budget is an important boost for the reputation of public works projects after a series of very public disasters including the so-called Big Dig. That tunnel project in Boston ballooned from $2.8 billion to $14.6 billion in price and, when it was completed, leaked.

"We have enormous needs throughout our country, and with this bridge, our ability to meet any challenge was proven," Zanatell said. "We can do it exactly as conveyed to the public, we can do it exactly on budget and there's no challenge that the skill set of our industry can't meet."