Before 2001 you could really get up close and personal with the Hoover Dam, on an interior tour, and to get right down deep inside there was the “Hard Hat Tour”. It got its name from the Blue hard hats that everybody had to wear. The tour took you down, deep inside the dam and to its massive generators; you even went out onto a ledge, well large platform that was above the river but way down near to the bottom of the dam wall where it met with the Colorado River. The sight of the enormous dam wall made everybody feel overwhelmed by its sheer size.
Many films have been made of or at the Hoover Dam; one of the most remembered is Superman.
When you stand on the Dam wall, there are 2 towers, each with a clock, there is a time difference of one hour, Nevada time and Colorado time, and pushing up against the dam wall is Lake Mead, even now we still take a cruise on the lake to see the dam from a different perspective.
Since 2001 the Hard Hat Tour has finished, but a visitor’s centre has been built and the history of the Hoover Dam can still be enjoyed.