When the Theo Erdman and Ida Girena Christiansen-Dorpat family moved from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Spokane, Washington in 1946, we all understood that we would soon be living with the power of the Grand Coulee Dam's generators and of its reputation as one of the modern wonders of the world. It was on the short list of marvels, and then still the largest construction in the world, when measured by how long a two-lane highway one could make from the cement needed to make the dam. By now its superlatives have been surpassed and I do not remember the miles of the imagined highway. The spectacle of the dam's cascades were ordinarily dampened by its east-west position. The spillway looks roughly north and so is ordinarily back-lighted. (Click to Enlarge)
Yup. Horace was looking – roughly – west. I can see how you might think from my last sentence that it was not the dam but Horace that I had looking north. I made the change to clarify that it was the dam’s spillway that looks north and so usually has the sun over its back or shoulders except in the longest days of summer.
Isn’t this looking roughly west on the site of the “new” powerhouse?
Yup. Horace was looking – roughly – west. I can see how you might think from my last sentence that it was not the dam but Horace that I had looking north. I made the change to clarify that it was the dam’s spillway that looks north and so usually has the sun over its back or shoulders except in the longest days of summer.