hoover dam
A hydroelectric dam on the Colorado River in southern Nevada, USA. The dam was constructed from 1931 to 1936 under the auspices of a federally funded Great Depression public works project. Authorized by Congress under the name Hoover Dam, after the then-incumbent President Herbert Hoover, the dam was renamed Boulder Dam by the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration after it replaced Hoover's in 1933. (The dam was originally meant to be built in Boulder Canyon, but was in fact built in nearby Black Canyon after the latter was found to be a more suitable site for construction.) Congress renamed it back to Hoover Dam in 1947.