Mead, Lake

At 223 m/731 ft Hoover is the highest concrete (‘arch and gravity’) dam, and the third highest of all dams in the USA. Behind it lies Lake Mead; this head of water drives hydroelectric generators that produce 1,300 megawatts of power.

Reservoir with the largest capacity in the USA. Lake Mead is situated in the far southeast of Nevada, near the Arizona border and 27 km/17 mi east of Las Vegas. The reservoir, which is 185 km/115 mi long and between 1.5 and 16 km (1–10 mi) wide, covers 638 sq km/246.5 sq mi and holds 34.8 billion cu m/1,229 billion cu ft of water. It was created by the construction of the Boulder (now Hoover) Dam on the Colorado River in 1936.

The cities of Boulder City and Henderson, Nevada, are immediately southwest of Lake Mead. The reservoir provides irrigation, flood control, and hydroelectric power, chiefly to Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area. Hoover Dam, one of the largest in the world, is 222 m/727 ft tall and is 391 m/1,282 ft wide. The dam and lake are major attractions in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area (area 6,070 sq km/2,340 sq mi), which extends downstream to near Laughlin, Nevada, and upstream to the western boundary of Arizona's Grand Canyon National Park.