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Show GRAND COULEE DAM Biggest Man Made Thing On Earth )the site of construction in central cen-tral Washington, including activities ac-tivities of Government forces and private contractors. Employment on the dam in 1936, 1937, 1939, and 1940, averaged more than 4 600 man-years annually. Actual employment on the project reached reach-ed a peak of 7,455 workers in July 1937. Off-site employment incident to the Grand Coulee construction during the seven years totaled 89,305,000 man-hours of the labor for 12 months of 44,653 men. On the basis of an index developed devel-oped by the Bureau of Labor Stat- Grand Coulee Dam on March 7t 2 begins providing power for National Defense, didn't just grow to be the "biggest thing on earth." It was built by man and will remain re-main a monument to the engineering en-gineering genius of this day for generations to come. "It is so big you cannot see it. Can an ant see an elephant ?"was the reaction of one known writer to this plug in the Columbia River Riv-er 90 miles west of Spokane. It is 500 feet high and 4,300 feet long, and its purpose is to store 10,000,000 acre feet of water wat-er in a 151-mile reservoir for the irrigation of 1,200,000 acres of dry land, for the generation annually an-nually of 12 billion kilowatt hours of electric energy in the largest power plant in the world, for flood control, river regulation, navigation navi-gation improvements and downstream down-stream power benefits. An idea of the size of the mam-oth mam-oth Grand Coulee Dam in Washington Wash-ington whose power plant hums into action March 22 can be obtained ob-tained only by comparisons. To state that the dam is the most massive structure ever erect- Jed by man or that it contains ten5 and one half million cubic yards or 22 and one half million tons of concrete fails to convey a mental men-tal picture of the vast dam. The base of the dam covers 35 acres. The Great Pyramid of Cheops, first wonder of the world covers 13 Acres.. The concrete in Grand Coulee equals about four Great Pyramids. About 5,000 men with modern construction machinery mach-inery placed the concrete in 5 years. Herodotus relates that it required 100,000 men 20 years to build the Pyramid. The -dam is 500 feet thick and 3,000 feet long at the base. It is 550 feet high, 30 feet thick and 4,300 feet long at the crest. Translated, the figures mean that the dam is nearly two ordinary or-dinary city blocks thick at the base and 15 city blocks long at the crest. It is as high as a 46-story 46-story building. It is only five feet less in height than the Washington Washing-ton Monument, which is 555 feet from base to apex. The cubic mass of Grand Coulee Cou-lee Dam could easily contain the equivalent of 250 Washington phours of work was provided atC Monuments. A line of 78 of them would march across the three-quarter three-quarter mile length of the dam. In the center section of the dam the rows could be 9 feet deep. Only the pointed tops of the Monument Mon-ument would protrude. The volumn of Grand Coulee Dam equals the combined volumn of the 20 largest concrete dams in the United States excluding Boulder Boul-der Dam. It would build a monument mon-ument 100 feet square nearly 6 miles high, or if placed on an ordinary or-dinary city block it would be nearly three times the height of the Empire Building. It would pave a standard 21 lane highway from New York to Seattle and back again. A total of 142,224,000 man-hour man-hour equivalent to the work of 71.112 men for an entire year-was year-was required to advance construction construc-tion of Grand Coulee Dam so that the first two service generators of the giant project on the Columbia River in Washington State could begin operation on March 22. From 1933 through February 1941, a total of 52,919 919 man- istics, Department of Labor, the completed project at Grand Coulee, Cou-lee, including maximum power and irrigation facilities for the Columbia Basin will represent labor totalling '476.257,000 man-hours. man-hours. At the dam site there will have been required 175,165,000 man-hours, equivalent to the la-or la-or of 87 500 men for a year. Off-site or indirect employment will total 301,092,000 man-hours, equivalent to the work of 150,150 men for a year. |