Show GREAT BLAST TURNS FLOW OF COLORADO Water Diverted From Natural Bed to Man-Made Man Tunnels Tunnels Tunnels Tun Tun- nels DAM BUILDING TO START Swinging of Channel Proves to Be Spectacular Task By WALTER B. B CLAUSEN Associated Press Staff Writer BOULDER CITY Nev Nov 14 14 Diving Jiving underground to the tune tunc of ot pounds a of exploding dynamite the Colorado river is giving up its bed today for lor nearly a mile so Hoover Hoover Hoo Hoo- ver er dam can be bo built The blast yesterdays yesterday's was like Titans Titan's alarm clock The job of actually actually ac ac- ac ousting the mighty turbulent river and sending it through two man made holes in the mile high canyon canyon canyon can can- yon wall proved to be a hour 24 task Completion of the earth fill dam to x divert all waters through two Arizona Ari An zona side tunnels each fifty feet wide was a rush job lasting through the night to noon today COMPLETING BARRIER During the night about half halt the river flow was pouring through the outer diversion tunnel the remaining remain- remain log ing ng flow rushing under a trestle from which great trucks were rock at the rate of over fifty tons a minute to complete the barrier This marks the accomplishment o of the first major step in the projector project for or electric power flood load control in inthe inthe inthe the Imperial valley reclamation o of ot vast areas and development of or domestic domes domes- tic water supply for southern California Califor Califor- nia cities The great blast that marked this achievement Was one of th the most spectacular ever witnessed by con construction can can- m- m engineers here Three Throe thousand thousand thou thou- sand holes each filled with fifty pounds of dynamite were drilled into canyon anyon walls on both Arizona and Nevada sides for a distance of about a quarter mile mUe Like a machine gun with a caliber of ot a inch 16 rifle detonations rent the theair theair theair air and great clouds of or dust surged down the canyon in rolling waves extending ex- ex tending ending a mile high For more than a minute that seemed like hours detonations continued con con- as the sides of the canyon walls fell fel into the river bed MINOR BLASTS At the same time minor blasts blew out a temporary coffer coHer dam at the outer diversion tunnel intake also of or an earth barrier at the tunnel outlet out- out let ct let Before the smoke and powder limes fumes cleared from the canyon a large arge volume of ot muddy water surged down through the tunnel as the river took ook to its us newly made subterranean course It was minutes before the blas blasting g masters master's siren sounded that all danger danger danger dan dan- ger of falling rock was past Then with a rush more than 1000 workers went to their tasks with platoons of big steam shovels biting into loose rock and streams of dump trucks like ants moved from shovel to the earth fill Ull dams darns to finish the barriers that will k keep p all water out of the dam site I 4 e I |