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- [00:00]
Lindsey Graham
There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad free. Listen with Wondry plus in the Wondery app as a member of Noiser plus at noiser.com or in Apple Podcasts. Or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at IntoHistory.com It's December 20, 1921, on the Colorado river, the border between Nevada and Arizona. A small, flat barge rocks in the churning waters as it heads downstream. Among the men clinging to its wooden sides is John Gregory Tierney, a 36 year old surveyor. John struggles to keep his balance as the river surges through canyons of orange rock. He's surprised that the water levels are this high. It hasn't rained in the region for days, and the land beyond the towering banks of the river is dry and dusty swath of the American Southwest. In fact, a need for irrigation is partly what brings John and his crew to this area. They're searching for the perfect spot to build a dam, one which will control the flow of the Colorado river, providing hydroelectric power and irrigation for farming and limiting the river's perilous floods. John believes they're nearing the ideal site, a place where the narrow river widens into a canyon. It was once known as Devil's Gate, and John can see why. The black mountains loom menacingly over the water on either side, casting deep shadows over the barge. John manages to resist the current long enough to moor his boat at the riverside. He hopes to set up camp nearby so his team can survey the area. But suddenly the river's roar grows louder. John looks upstream and sees a rush of water surging toward them. It must be a flash flood, so John shouts out a warning to his crew. They leap off the barge onto the shore, but before John can join them, the barge is ripped from its moorings and carried helplessly away on the rapids. John can't control the boat and the surging waters. A huge wave claps into the barge and flips it upside down. John is thrown into the churning water and disappears from sight. John Tierney's body will never be found. He will come to be known as the first man to die in the construction of the Hoover Dam. But he won't be the last. This unprecedented feat of engineering will prove a disastrous undertaking for its construction crew, but the work will continue unabated, and more than a decade after John's death, it will reach an important milestone when the first bucket of concrete is poured on site on June 6, 1933.
- [02:45]
Capital One
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- [03:18]
Zoe Saldana
Hi, Zoe Saldana. Welcome to T Mobile. Here's your new iPhone 16 Pro on us.
- [03:23]
T Mobile Customer
Thanks. And here's my old phone to trade in.
- [03:25]
Zoe Saldana
You don't need a trade in. When you switch to T Mobile, we'll give you a new iPhone 16 Pro plus we'll help you pay off your old Phone up to 800 bucks and you still get to keep it.
- [03:34]
T Mobile Customer
There's always a trade in.
- [03:35]
Zoe Saldana
Not right now. @ T Mobile.
- [03:36]
T Mobile Customer
I feel like I have to give you something in return for karma.
- [03:39]
Zoe Saldana
That's okay.
- [03:40]
T Mobile Customer
I don't really have much in my purse. Oh, let's see. Hand sanitizer. It's lavender.
- [03:44]
Zoe Saldana
I'm good. Seriously.
- [03:46]
T Mobile Customer
Let me check this pocket. Oh, mints.
- [03:48]
Zoe Saldana
Really, I'm fine.
- [03:49]
T Mobile Customer
Oh, I have raisins. I'm a mom. Wait, wait one sec. I've got cupcakes in the car.
- [03:54]
Lindsey Graham
It's our best iPhone offer ever. Switch to T Mobile. Get a new iPhone 16 Pro with Apple Intelligence on us, no trade in needed. We'll even pay off your phone up to 800 bucks with 24 monthly bill credits. New line, $100 plus a month on experience beyond agreement.
- [04:09]
Misha Brown
$999.99 and qualifying boarded for well qualified plus tax and $10 connection charge.
- [04:13]
Lindsey Graham
Payout via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days credits and amounts due if you pay off early. Or cancel CT mobile.com from Noiser and Airship. I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is History. Daily history is made every day on this podcast. Every day, we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. Today is June 6, 1933. The first concrete is poured at the Hoover Dam. It's August 7, 1931, 10 years after John Gregory Turney drowned in the Colorado river. Four miles downriver from where John disappeared, engineer Frank Crow rises from his camp bed. He dresses quickly, donning a wide brimmed hat to shade him from the desert sun before he heads out of his tent into a large construction site. It's been three years since the Hoover Dam was given the go ahead by Congress, and Frank is the man entrusted with the ultimate vision for the project. But that vision is still confined to his intricate blueprints. For now, laborers are busy with preliminary work. Diverting the river by digging tunnels in the bedrock and building a new town nearby. For the thousands of men who will be needed to construct the dam. The settlement will be called Boulder City. Until it's finished, though, Frank's laborers must live in shanty town like camps in the desert. The men work long hours for little pay in 120 degree heat. All under Frank's constant watchful eye. As morning breaks and work begins, Frank looks out over the rushing Colorado river and the and marvels that somehow he's supposed to tame it. Frank has taken charge of major construction projects in 17 different Western states, Reshaping riverbeds and creating reservoirs. He's known for his obsession with efficiency. While working for the Federal Bureau of Reclamation, he pioneered the use of new building methods and new equipment. But this Colorado river project is not progressing fast enough for Frank's liking. He promised the US government that his dam would cost about $49 million and take seven years to build. Now, though, he worries about how much time and money has already been spent mulling over these concerns. Frank turns away from the river and marches through the site. The air rings to the sound of chisels on rock. There are hundreds of men here, chipping away at the sheer cliffs that surround the river. Frank pauses, watching them for a moment before he reaches a decision to cut the wages of the least skilled tunnel diggers. He gathers his workers and tells them the bad news. He doesn't expect the men to be happy about it, but he fully expects work to go on as before. And Frank has good reason to be confident. The Great Depression is only getting worse. And as the nation's unemployment rate steadily climbs towards 25%, thousands of men have flocked to this construction site looking for work. The conditions are dangerous. Frank's workers risk heat exhaustion, carbon monoxide poisoning and many other hazards. But that doesn't seem to put them off. So Frank believes they need these jobs too much to complain about a pay cut. But it turns out his calculations are wrong. Just hours after his announcement, all activity on site comes to a halt. The entire workforce is fed up with low pay and unsafe conditions. So they've all agreed to go on strike until Frank makes some changes. They want the original pay of the tunnel workers restored. They want ready access to clean water counter. They want modern flush toilets and access to ice to ease the crushing heat they face every day. The men don't think these demands are unreasonable. But the strike enrages Frank. He's already worried about falling behind schedule, and the strike will only make things worse. He rails against the workers, describing them in the press as malcontents and insisting he will not give in to a single demand. With their boss proving unsympathetic, the striking workers turn to the US Government for help. They appeal to William Doak, Secretary of Labor, to intervene in the dispute. But Doak refuses to even acknowledge their concerns. In the end, the strike lasts only a week. Then, desperate for wages and with no support to call on, the dejected workers vote to return to work. None of their main demands have been met, but they do win two small concessions. Frank promises not to cut wages again, and he speeds up construction on Boulder City so that workers will eventually have real homes to live in for the rest of the project. But the unsafe conditions on site remain. Over the next two years, more than 8.5 million pounds of dynamite are used to widen the canyon and blast out the tunnels needed to divert the river around the construction site. The original path of the river then dries up, allowing laborers to dig over 40ft into exposed riverbed to reach solid rock beneath beneath. Meanwhile, suspended by ropes, other workers, known as high scalers, climb down the walls of the canyon to remove loose rock with explosives and jackhammers. It's all dangerous work, and dozens die in on site accidents. But their sacrifice allows Frank to make rapid progress. And soon he will reach an important milestone ahead of schedule. Two years after the laborers strike, the job of diverting the Colorado river will finally be complete. The time will come for the Hoover Dam to make the leap from Frank's blueprints into concrete reality.
- [09:46]
Chico Felitti
Everyone has that friend who seems kind of perfect for Patty. That friend was Tessie Rae. Until one day I texted her and.
- [09:55]
T Mobile Customer
She was not getting the text.
- [09:57]
Lindsey Graham
So I went to Instagram.
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T Mobile Customer
She has no Instagram anymore. And Facebook. No Facebook anymore.
- [10:02]
Chico Felitti
Desiree was gone. And there was one person who knew the answer.
- [10:07]
Lindsey Graham
I am a spiritual person, a magical person, a witch.
- [10:11]
Chico Felitti
A gorgeous Brazilian influencer called Kat Torres, but who was hiding a secret from Wondery. Based on my smash hit podcast, from Brazil comes a new series, Don't Cross Cat, about a search that led me to a mystery in a Texas suburb. I'm calling to check on the two missing Brazilian girls.
- [10:32]
Lindsey Graham
Maybe get some undercover crew there.
- [10:34]
T Mobile Customer
The family are freaking out.
- [10:35]
Lindsey Graham
They are lost.
- [10:37]
Chico Felitti
I'm Chico Felitti. You can listen to Don't Cross Cat on the Wondery app or wherever you.
- [10:42]
Lindsey Graham
Get your Podcasts Lamont Jones's world is shattered when his cousin dies in custody just weeks after entering prison. The official report says natural causes, but bruises and missing teeth tell a different story. From Wondery comes Death County, Pa. A chilling true story of corruption and cover ups that begins as one man's search for answers, but soon reveals a disturbing Lamont's cousin's death is just one of many and powerful forces are working to keep the truth buried. With never before heard interviews and shocking revelations, Death County, Pennsylvania pulls back the curtain on one of America's darkest institutional secrets. This isn't just another true crime story. It's happening right now. Follow Death County Pa on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Death County, Pennsylvania early and ad free right now by joining Wondery plus it's the morning of June 6, 1933 at the Hoover Dam construction site on the Colorado River. Two years after work began, the project's General superintendent, Frank Crowe, watches on approvingly as a car sized bucket of concrete is hoisted through the air by a crane below him. What was once the site of the Colorado river is now a dry and rocky scar in the earth. At the bottom of this man made gorge, framed with reinforced timber, the first mold is ready to receive its concrete. The project is now 18 months ahead of schedule. Frank is obsessed with completing the dam as quickly as possible, but excavating the canyon and diverting the river were only the preliminary steps. Building the dam itself will pose the greatest challenge. Frank has made smaller dams before, but the Hoover Dam is so big that he knows it has to be approached differently. Concrete heats as it cures, and so much of it is needed here that if the dam were built with one continuous pour, it would take over a century for it to cool. So Frank has devised a plan to pour the concrete bit by bit. His team has constructed individual molds blocks 5ft high and up to 50ft square, stacked on top of each other and filled with concrete. These will build up the dam layer by layer to accelerate the cooling process. Pipes filled with refrigerated river water will run through the wet concrete. Once it sets, these pipes will then be filled with grout, further strengthening the concrete around them. This method should work, but Frank knows that nothing like it's been tried on such a scale before. So Frank is nervous as he watches the crane deposit the first 8 cubic yard bucket of concrete into its mold. As soon as the concrete slushes out, seven men called puddlers leap into action stamping and patting the concrete into place with their boots and shovels. By the time the puddlers are done, the next steel bucket is already on its way. Frank is building what's called an arch gravity dam. It combines the characteristics of two classic dam types. Like a gravity dam, it will use its own enormous weight to hold back the water. But like an arch dam, it will curve at the top, Presenting a convex face to the river and directing most of the immense water pressure against the solid rock walls of the canyon. This is the first structure of its kind, but Frank believes it will be strong enough to stand up to the violent flow of the Colorado river. All told, 4 million cubic yards of concrete Will be needed to complete the damage. So Frank continues to drive his workers on at a furious pace, with little regard for their comfort or safety. And with the Great Depression only getting worse, the laborers at the dam have less leverage than ever. They know that good jobs are at a premium and don't dare complain about their work or living conditions. Thankfully, though, Boulder City has now been completed at last. The laborers town consists of communal dormitories for men, Small cottages for families, and an enormous mess hall, which serves 6,000 meals a day. But the hastily erected stucco buildings are derisively dubbed dingbat houses and are not considered much of an improvement over the shanty towns the workers lived in before. Rules in the town are strict, too. Las Vegas may only be 20 miles up the road, but it's a world away from Boulder City. Any suggestion of involvement in gambling, drinking, or prostitution in Boulder City Was see a worker immediately fired and expelled. But despite these restrictions, Laborers still flock to the dam construction site in hope of work. And Boulder City continues to expand with its layout changing so rapidly that it's common for a man to come home from a long day of work and walk into the wrong house. With such a large and mostly docile workforce, Construction of the Hoover Dam continues ahead of schedule. The project is vast, though, and concrete pouring will continue continue almost two years. By the time it's finished. The structure will tower 726ft above the bedrock, Making it the tallest dam in the world. Engineer Frank Crowe will be widely praised for driving the complex project forward so efficiently. But that incredible speed will come at a terrible price. And for one family especially, the construction of the Hoover Dam will be forever marked with tragedy.
- [15:58]
Misha Brown
Every big moment starts with a big dream. But what happens when that big dream turns out to be a big flop? From wondery and ill media. I'm Misha Brown, and this is the big flop. Every week, comedians join me to chronicle the biggest flubs, fails and blunders of all time. Like Quibi.
- [16:21]
Lindsey Graham
It's kind of like when you give yourself your own nickname and you try to like get other people to do it.
- [16:25]
Misha Brown
And and the 2019 movie adaptation of Cats.
- [16:29]
T Mobile Customer
Like if I'm watching the dancing and.
- [16:30]
Lindsey Graham
I'm noticing the feet aren't touching the ground, there's something wrong with the movie.
- [16:34]
Misha Brown
Find out what happens when massive hype turns into major fiasco. Enjoy the Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to the Big Flop early and ad free on Wondery. Get started with your free trial@wondery.com plus.
- [16:51]
Lindsey Graham
Plus it's September 30, 1935, two years after the first concrete was poured for the Hoover Dam, a temporary stage has been constructed on the curved roadway at the top of the dam. There, President Franklin D. Roosevelt leans against the lectern and addresses the crowd. It's 102 degrees at this dusty, hilly border between Nevada and Arizona, but nevertheless, 10,000 people have gathered to hear the President's speech. Roosevelt praises the incredible feat of engineering he stands upon. In his eyes, the dam has tamed the Colorado river and transformed the surrounding desert from a cactus ridden wasteland into a center of future American expansion. Standing near the President, lead engineer Frank Crow swells with pride, and for the rest of his life he will consider this dam his crowning achievement. But despite the day's celebration, the dam is not technically finished. There is still more work to be done, so many laborers are kept on to fill the last gaps between concrete blocks and to complete the accompanying power plant. One of the remaining laborers is Patrick Tierney. He is the only child of John Gregory Tierney, the surveyor who lost his life in a flash flood over a decade earlier. Patrick is now 26. He traveled with his family to Nevada two years ago and managed to parlay sympathy about his father's death into a job on the dam. Now he's proud to be one of the final workers on the project, which his father in many ways started. But tragically, Patrick also does not live to see the dam finished. On December 20, 1935, exactly 14 years after the death of his father, Patrick falls 320ft from an intake tower. And just like his father, Patrick's body is lost to the waters of the Colorado River. Thankfully, though, Patrick is the last casualty of construction work. But at least 95 other men died building the dam, and laborers will claim that many more deaths were wrongly blamed on pneumonia when the true culprit was carbon monoxide poisoning caused by their machinery. The full truth behind the casualties on site may never be known, but the environmental damage done by the dam is now better understood. Ecosystems north and south of the Hoover Dam were forever changed by its construction. Still, it remains an iconic structure of its age, welcoming millions of tourists each year and continuing to provide power to hundreds of thousands of homes. Its towering walls stand as a monument not only to the engineering brilliance of Frank Crowe, but also to the many forgotten men who died in the years before, before and after. The historic first bucket of concrete was poured on June 6, 1933. Next on History Daily June 9, 1973 Secretariat makes horse racing history by winning the Belmont Stakes and capturing the Triple Crown from Noiser and Airship. This is History Daily Hosted, edited and executive produced by me, Lindsey Graham Audio editing by Mohammed Shazi Sound design by Molly Bott Music by Thrum. This episode is written and researched by Owen Long edited by Dorian Marina Managing Producer Emily Burke Executive producers are William Simpson for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.