Duxbury High School - Partridge Yearbook (Duxbury, MA)

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HONOR ESSAY Grand Coulee Dam The eighth wonder of the world, man's most massive masonry struc- ture on earth, three times larger than the largest Egyptian pyramid, lies within the border of the United States in the state of Washington. It is the Grand Coulee Dam which harnesses the Columbia River, the greatest potential source of useful energy of the rivers of the United States. More water flows from the mouth of the Columbia every year than flows from the mouth of the Mississippi. The Grand Coulee Dam was started in th-e winter of 1933-34 by the Consolidated Builders. Inc. This dam is being built under the authorization of the Columbia Basin Reclamation Project, which comes under the Bureau of Reclamation of the Department of the Interior. This bureau in the past 38 years has built 160 dams, which have regulated streams and conserved water now irri- gating over 3,000,000 acres of land. The Grand Coulee Dam derives its name from the Grand Coulee, the old river bed of the Columbia River, which will serve as a reservoir for the water that will bring new life to the parched lands of Central Washington. The irrigation of the rich land of central Washington with the water of the Columbia has been dreamed of since the days of the early settlers. Now, the enforced abandonment of eroded and sub-marginal land, the natural increase in population, and the desire for improvement in standards in living, make it necessary. Modern equipment and methods, electrical power, and federal financing make it possible. Before the actual work on the dam itself could be started, about twenty- two and a half billion tons of earth, gravel. and rock had to be removed. two towns, a bridge, a railroad, a high tension power lin-eg telegraph and telephone lines had to be built, and a whole hill had to be frozen with six miles of refrigerating pipes to ke-ep it from sliding into the river. After these prelminary preparations, the dam itself was begun. Eleven billion two hundred-fifty thousand cubic yards of concre-te and seventy- seven m.illion pounds of re-enforcing steel went into its construction besides tons of sheet steel pilings and millions of feet of lumb-er. Enough concrete was used to make two sixteen-foot highways from coast to coast. It measures five hundred feet in width at its base and thirty feet in width at its crest. It is 3,000 feet in length at its base and 4,300 feet long at its crest. There are two immense power-houses at each end of the dam. Each one is larger than the Capitol of th-e Unit-ed States. In these there will be placed eighteen turbines and eighteen generators capable of generating' 1,950,000 kilowatts of electricity, eno-ugh electricity to make t-in solid aluminum Washington Monuments in one year. E201

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The democratic syst-em of the United States of America has worked for forty-eight separate and united statesg and for three-quarters of a century there has been no conflict between one state and another, but complete harmony and unity. If this system works in one land, why can't it work in another? Another p-an has been suggested by Clarence Streit in his book Union Noun Hi: brlieves that the world organization can be improved by the im- mid ate fcirgation of a union of the democracies. As soon as other countries wlsx .2 accept the principles of the union they can be admitted, thus evlntually spreading throughout the world. This union would have full power in making war and peace, and also over trade, money, communica- tions, and ciiizinship within the Union. Voting power would be propor- ticnate to its se 1'-gov-ei ning population. ilies- ai- only some of the proposals. What sort of peace will follow this x.'a-- cuzpnot be prophesied, but it can be planned. If we plan for a pe c that w--i be eternal peace, the boys on the batt.-eiields, on the seas, and in tize .ii :nd gn: people cn the home front will fight harder, making vic.o1-y c.cs--r to hand. PHOEBE SHIRLEY I 19 J

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In order to raise the great amount of water, needed for irrigation, 208 feet into the Grand Coulee, ten pumps of enormous size will be installed at the dam. One of these pumps alone could supply New York City with enough water to take care of all its domestic needs. The water. which these pumps will raise into the Grand Coulee, will in the next twenty-five to fifty years, give new life to 1,200,000 acres of sagebrush and mirage. On this restored land, homes for 40,000 families will be provided. and about as many in towns in the irrigated areas. This project will be self-liquidating by the payments from the settlers for water rights and from the purchasers of electric power. Now that the United States is at war, the power generated by the Grand Coulee Dam will become a valuable asset towards the final attain- mint of compete victory over the Axis nations. KENNETH ROBERT BUNTEN, JR. lill