In 1933 the federal government initiated a golden era of dam construction in the United States, a wave of construction that included the Grand Coulee Dam (Columbia River) and the Hoover Dam (Colorado River). That same year the Roosevelt administration established the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to provide much-needed hydroelectric energy to the Tennessee Valley area.

The initial construction of these dams provided employment to thousands of Americans at the height of the Great Depression. Since then, generations of Americans, mostly blue collar, have continued to find employment in these massive dam operations.

These materials which include written and recorded oral histories, government documents, and photographs, document the difficult labor conditions that existed during the construction of these great dam projects.

Using these documents, CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING:

• Why were workers willing to submit themselves to the brutal conditions that frequently existed during these construction projects?
• How did these construction projects affect families in the areas surrounding the work sites?
• How have the workforces diversified since completion of these dam projects?

1. View: Construction work at the TVA's Douglas Dam.
2. View: Construction work at the TVA's Douglas Dam, Tenn.
3. View: Shasta Dam, Shasta County, California. Construction work at the dam.
4. View: Shasta Dam, Shasta County, California. Operator of steam shovel used for excavation work at the dam.
5. View: Fort Loudon Dam, Tennessee. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Some of the 1300 men who work the 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Fort Loudon Dam, Tennessee.
6. View: Douglas Dam, Tennessee. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Worker.
7. View: Tennessee Valley Authority. Newly installed generator units at work in a recent addition to TVA's hydroelectric plant at Wilson Dam.
8. View: Shasta Dam, Shasta County, California.
9. View: Workers at Shasta Dam play pool at the commissary. Shasta County, California.
10. View: Tennessee Valley Authority. Construction of Douglas Dam. Loading out rock for crushing into aggregate for concrete work at TVA's new Douglas Dam on the French Broad River.
11. View: Grand Coulee dam, Columbia Basin reclamation project. A portion of the spillway section through which the river will flow after diversion.
12. View: Wheeler Dam, Ala., 1935-40(?)--A laborer at the dam.
13. View: Wheeler Dam, Ala. 1935-40(?). Workmen installing the speed ring in one of the generators of the Wheeler Dam.
14. View: Construction of Boulder Dam, Boulder City, Nevada--Steel bar reinforcement in intake towers.
15. View: Boulder dam, between Arizona and Nevada--July 1934--Top of the upstream Nevada intake tower showing the installation of the upper ring gate.
16. View: Grouting concrete lining in 50' diameter diversion tunnel.
17. View: Boulder dam, between Arizona and Nevada, May 1933--Drillers at work on the bench on the Nevada side, excavating the dam foundation.
18. View: Boulder dam, between Arizona and Nevada. The first bucket of concrete grout being poured in Boulder dam proper on June 6, 1933.
19. View: Boulder dam, between Arizona and Nevada, Sept. 1934--Workman attaching cables to an eight cubic yard capacity concrete bucket at a transfer station on the Nevada rim of Black Canyon.
20. View: Construction workers lined up to be paid off, Shasta Dam, Shasta County, California.
21. View: Poker game of construction workers at canteen. Shasta Dam, Shasta County, California.
22. View: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The shaft of the 30,000 kilowatt waterwheel generator which Westinghouse Electric Company is manufacturing for the Watts Bar Dam of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). This is the central rotating part of the generator. It weighs 75,000 pounds and is the heaviest single part in the construction of the generator. In the background, men are working in the stator frame of the generator.
23. View: Stator frame of the 30,000 kilowatt generator.
24. View: Aerial view of Boulder Dam, Arizona, during valve tests.
25. View: Boulder dam, between Arizona and Nevada, Apr. 1934--Downstream face of the dam structure.
26. View: Aerial view of Boulder Dam, Arizona, looking south.
27. View: Welding of the 30' diameter penstocks for the Boulder power plant.
28. View: Construction of Boulder Dam, Boulder City, Nevada: Rigger on cableway headtower during erection.
29. View: Construction of Boulder Dam, Boulder City, Nevada--A typical Boulder Dam laborer - a young man, without a shirt, standing full-length, holding shovel.
30. View: Generators at Boulder Dam.
31. View: Boulder dam, between Arizona and Nevada. Workman using compressed air vibrator for compacting concrete adjacent to forms.
32. View: "Big Pete" Ramagos, rigger at work on dam (TVA) Douglas Dam, Tenn.
33. View: Tennessee Valley Authority power and conservation. Fort Loudoun Dam construction. Hand of a carpenter setting frame at the new Fort Loudoun Dam, furthest upstream of the TVA's main Tennessee River projects.
34. View: Tennessee Valley Authority power and conservation. Fort Loudoun Dam construction. A pipe fitter at the Fort Loudoun Dam, furthest upstream of the TVA's Tennessee River projects.
35. View: Ready for action against saboteurs is the hand and weapon of a public safety service officer at the new Fort Loudoun Dam.
36. View: At the construction site of the Ural atomic electric power station, with a capacity of 200,000 kilowatts. The construction site of the water reservoir dam.
37. View: Checking the alignment of a turbine shaft at the top of the guide bearing in TVA's hydroelectric plant, Watts Bar Dam, Tenn.
38. View: Tennessee Valley Authority. Wilson Dam hydroelectric plant construction. A partly completed stator for one of the generator units at a new addition to the TVA's hydroelectric plant at Wilson Dam.
39. View: Tennessee Valley Authority. Construction of Douglas Dam. Pay day at the TVA's new Douglas Dam on the French Broad River.
40. View: Tennessee Valley Authority. Construction of Douglas Dam. Cleaning up bed rock at the site of TVA's new Douglas Dam on the French Broad River.
41. View: Man in control tower at Shasta Dam. Shasta County, California. He directs the various cable cars, equiptment which transports materials to construction points.
42. View: Shasta Dam, Shasta County, California. Bucket which delivers concrete to construction area. These buckets travel on cables strung from head tower to several tail towers.
43. View: Dumping concrete in construction of Shasta Dam, Shasta County, California.
44. View: Construction workers on truck which will carry them to work on Shasta Dam, Shasta County, California.
45. View: Workmen using viberators which spread the wet concrete in construction of Shasta Dam.
46. View: Wheelhouse from which aerial tram which delivers materials to construction points is operated, Shasta Dam, Shasta County, California.
47. View: Automobiles and a pedestrian make their way through water by Union Station at 17th (Seventeenth) and Wynkoop Streets during the Cherry Creek flood which resulted from the Castlewood Dam break of 1933, Denver, Colorado.
48. View: Castlewood Dam - after break.
49. View: Switch yard at TVA's Wilson Dam hydroelectric plant.
50. View: Conowingo Hydroelectric Plant. Bench board type control panel through which entire plant is controlled.
51. View: Production. Steam power plant equipment. Filling tube holes on a high-pressure boiler drum. Steam boilers and other power-house equipment to supplement the hydroelectric installations of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) system are produced in the large Chattanooga shops of the Combustion Engineering Company.
52. View: Construction workers playing pool in company commissary, Shasta Dam. Shasta County, California. December 1940,

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1. Read: Grand Coulee, The Largest Turbines in the West
2. Read: authorization of couley dam
3. Read: "Deadline for Moving Nears: Residents of Towns Must Vacate by May 1"
4. Read: "Dam Site Land Testimony Cut"

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