Browse Items (50 total)

One map of the Columbia Basin Project.

Blossoms.

Sagebrush.

The Rising Structure. West bank portion of the Grand Coulee Dam.

Below river. Drillers safe from surging waters behind a protecting cofferdam.

Excavation below river level. Excavation activities in unwater riverbed section. March 1937.

No description -- construction equipment

Birdseye view looking south.

"The Grand Coulee Dam, Power Plant and Pumping Plant"

Typical powerhouse section - Grand Coulee Dam & Typical Spillway Section - Grand Coulee Dam.

The Bucket. Downstream face of spillway with powerhouse foundation beyond.

Cold Concrete. Nearly 2,000,000 cubic yards of it in west end of dam with Columbia diverted through low section.

Columbia River Diverted. Two cross-river cofferdams divert stream through low sections in west portion of dam while east portion is unwatered for preparation of foundation.

Source of supply for the eleven million yards of sand and gravel required for the Grand Coulee Dam.

Gravel Pit. Deposit from which concrete aggregates are excavated by electric shovels and belt conveyors at a rate of 2500 tons per hour.

Deepest foundation depression. Ice dam restraining the muck from flowing into pit.

"Ice Dam" - Muck flowing into deep depression in bedrock, stopped by artificially frozen arch dam.

Facilities for visitors. Some 200,000 visitors in 1936 inspected a model of the dam and from sheltered seats close to the work on each side of the river viewed the construction work and had it explained over a public address system.

Cooling pipe. Water will be circulated through 2000 miles of it embedded in the dam to cool and shrink the concrete and thus facilitate grouting of construction joints.

A "House of Magic" - One of two concrete mixing plants, capacity 8,000 cubic yards per day each.

The checkerboard. The pouring of concrete into interlocking blocks permits grouting of contraction joints to form monolithic mass.

West End Grand Coulee Dam - Concrete placing trestles and cranes.

Upstream Face Grand Coulee Dam. 1,550,000 cubic yards of concrete in place.

Jackhammer Men - with hard hats and safety belts they trim steep abutment slopes.

Night at Grand Coulee.

A five-yard shovel loading a twenty-yard "Buggy."

Bedrock behind west cofferdam.

Concrete placing - Dumping a four-yard concrete bucket.

Concrete in dam. June, 1936. One millionth yard placed August 14, 1936.

Concrete placing - January 1936. Top of dam 280 feet above high trestle deck.

Governor Clarence D. Martin formally placing first concrete in dam, December 6, 1935.

Conveyor stacker - discharging excavated material in Rattlesnake Canyon.

Belt conveyor - Transporting excavated material to Rattlesnake Canyon, 1 1/2 miles distant.

Excavation behind west cofferdam - August, 1935.

Excavation - Five-yard shovel loading ten-yard buggies - excavating overburden from dam foundation.

Driving steel piling. West cofferdam.

West cofferdam, March 31, 1935. Length, 3000 feet, height 115 feet, over 17,000 tons steel piling, constructed in ninety days.

Government camp and highway bridge, 1936. Upstream is west cofferdam, concrete placing trestle, and west conveyor.

Builders' Quarters - Government camp in the foreground; contractor's camp across the river - 1936.

The President's Visit - August 4, 1934.