#10: The Hoover Dam’s First and Last Casualties
On December 20, 1922, a surveyor named J.G. Tierney drowned in the rushing Colorado River. He was scouting for a good spot to build what would become the Hoover Dam, becoming the project’s very first fatality. Construction was a massive and dangerous undertaking, and many more would die. The project’s final official death happened exactly 13 years to the day later, on December 20, 1935. The man who died was Patrick Tierney, J.G. Tierney’s only son.
