Hoover Dam: Fate or Tragedy?

The Hoover dam (originally known as Boulder dam) is as much an epic story as a tragedy. Albeit being the biggest of its kind at that time, its construction over the Colorado River, in the midst of the Great Depression, has been tarnished by over a hundred fatal accidents, taking dad and son…

The dam project was accepted on 1928. And despite (or thanks to?) the worst financial crisis of the modern western world, the work actually started in 1931. When it was dedicated in September 30th 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, it was 2 years ahead of schedule – that definitely worth mentioning!

But working conditions were dear. Summer period especially, when suffocating heat would wrap the construction site. In summer 1931, temperatures would raise to a daily average of 48.8C (120F!) – 16 workers died of hyperthermia in a single month. That’s 1 dead every other day!

By the end of the project, the official toll went up to 96 casualties. But that only accounts for “industrial fatalities”, meaning sudden death on site, linked to accident: you pass away at the hospital, or even just on your way to it, you’re out of the list… For instance, it is estimated that at least 42 additional workers died from pneumonia likely induced by the exhaust of the equipments used in the tunnels (and at 60C !).

On the top of it, if you expend your focus to include the preparatory work period (excluded in the official figure), you get 16 more casualties. This brings the total count to 112.

This is already tragic, but Fate would have a twist.

The 1st person dying from this project is John Gregory Tierney, drowning on December 20th 1922 while conducting a survey for the US Bureau of Reclamation.

The last person on record is an Electrician helper, falling from one of the intake tower on December 20th 1935: Patrick W. Tierney, son of J. G. Tierney…

Exactly 13 year apart, the Tierney family paid twice the highest price for the construction of this monumental but tragic work: the Hoover dam.

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