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Background:
On September 30, 1935, Hoover Dam, one of the great
engineering feats of the twentieth century, was formally
dedicated during a ceremony attended by President Franklin
D. Roosevelt. Built in one of America's most inhospitable
settings, thousands of workers and their families came
to the Nevada desert to help tame the mighty Colorado
River. Despite unprecedented engineering challenges
and summer temperatures in excess of 120 degrees, Hoover
Dam was completed ahead of schedule in only three years.
Rising 726 feet above the raging waters of the Colorado
River, the dam ended the Imperial Valley's endless cycles
of flood and drought and provided renewable energy for
the growing Southwest. The dam, constructed in the midst
of the Depression, also renewed national faith in American
ingenuity and technology. Officially designated "Boulder
Dam" by the Roosevelt administration, its original
name-Hoover Dam, after Roosevelt's predecessor in the
White House-was restored in 1947.
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