Grand Coulee Dam

Grand Coulee Dam. . When completed in 1941, Grand Coulee Dam was the world's largest concrete structure. It still is today., President Franklin D. Roosevelt supported this massive federal project to dam the Columbia River because it put people to work during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The dam would also produce huge amounts of electricity and supply water to irrigate over a million acres of new farmland. Officials thought the losses of salmon runs and riverside communities were unfortunate but necessary costs., Thousands of workers spent eight years building the dam. They mined sand and gravel, polished bedrock for the foundation, and froze hillsides to prevent slides. They poured millions of yards of concrete and installed generators to produce electricity., Completed just as the United States entered the Second World War, the dam's electricity powered critical wartime industries. Irrigation began in the early 1950s, when water was pumped through huge tubes from Roosevelt Lake, behind the dam, to Banks Lake on the plateau above., The Grand Coulee Dam is operated by the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of the Interior. There is a visitors center at the dam., [Captions (clockwise from top)] , . Installation of generator housing, 1941 Bureau of Reclamation, US Department of the Interior , . Powerhouse under construction, 1940 Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of the Interior , . Grand Coulee Dam The Star Newspaper, Grand Coulee, January 17, 1937 , . Columbia Basin Project, 1937 Special Collections Division, University of Washington Libraries