August 16, 2021
65 million years ago lava flowed across 100,000 square miles of Washington, Idaho, and Oregon and pushed the Columbia River into its present channel. Two and a half million years ago glaciers repeatedly blocked the river and its tributaries. When the ice dams broke, a rush of water 2000 feet deep scoured the landscape and created canyons also known as coulees. Two significant cascades formed, 800 and 400 feet high. In 1933 work began on what would then be the largest concrete structure in the world, Grand Coulee Dam, at the former site of the larger falls. Franklin Delano Roosevelt championed the dam to put people to work, generate power, and provide irrigation.
The dam blocked salmon runs and inundated riverside communities, but these were considered acceptable costs.
The dam was completed in 1941. It is 550 feet high and a mile wide. In contrast, the Statue of Liberty and Niagara Falls are 305 and 167 feet high, respectively. The dam contains almost 12 million cubic yards of concrete–three and a half times the concrete in Boulder Dam.
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