Location 34: Hoover Dam

Anyone for skateboarding?

Hoover Dam is an amazing piece of civil engineering, and it's fitting it's both my last photogaphed location and the end of the game.

A shorter drop in-game

It's no longer possible to drive directly over the dam on its top edge; a new bypass bridge came into effect in summer 2010. This means I was one of the last foreign visitors to drive over the Dam itself (last year!) when construction was finishing up.

That's a lot of concrete

Looking over the dam! This is the only location where I've been forced to use different image heights to compensate for the wider aspects in the game (it's a scale thing.)

Everything's wider and lower

But as you can see the game captures the sheer immensity of the 1930s masterpiece quite accurately.A sharp intake of breath at the audacity of those engineers... both civil and software.

Isn't there a shotgun in there?

Seems further to walk

The towers that house the hydroelectric turbines are reproduced faithfully, although without the "Arizona Time" and "Nevada Time" clocks that denote the different states the dam spans.


 

A glass box in the canyon...

...but concrete suits the NCR better

A point of difference, though, is the Visitor Centre. I suppose the in-game building takes its cues from the 1950s; the current building is quite new.

A couple of wingsuiters

A bit shorter in-game

The angels monument near the visitor centre is also nicely graphic'd up, including the gold-leaf inscription (almost readable in the game - try it!)

Come on in, the water's lovely

Bit too chilly perhaps

This picture showcases a serious point. See the "clean" rocks for a couple of metres above the waterline, leaving a neat bathtub mark around Lake Mead?

 That's how far the water level has receded - possibly due to global warming. You see signs of this all over the West's lakes and forests, and it's worrying.

And that's my Fallout New Vegas Tour! It's been a great trip; thank you for joining me on it. GAME OVER!