First Visit to Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam

My first visit to Hoover Dam, and it’s incredible to see both how big the dam is and how low the water level is behind the dam. In December of 2021, the water elevation of Lake Mead was 1,065 feet above sea level – almost 200 feet lower than its maximum level, and the lowest level since the 1930s, when the lake basin was still being filled.

lake Mead behind Hoover Dam
Low water level at Lake Mead.
The Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, completed in 2010, is the second-highest bridge in the United States. You can walk across it for a great view of Hoover Dam.
The view from the O’Callaghan-Tillman bridge.

The Vanderbilt Mansion In Hyde Park, New York

If this 54 room home looks a little bit small for something with both “Vanderbilt” and “Mansion” in its name, maybe it’s because Hyde Park was just one of several houses Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt owned. They also had a New York City townhouse, of course, and at various times, a Newport, Rhode Island mansion (Rough Point, later owned by Doris Duke), an Adirondack camp (Pine Tree Point), and a Bar Harbor, Maine mansion (Sogonee, later owned by radio tycoon A. Atwater Kent).

Construction began in 1895, the same year that Frederick’s kid brother, George Washington Vanderbilt II, completed his modest 250-room summer house, the Biltmore Estate.

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