Hoover Dam

6. Parking Area

Hoover Dam opened for tours in 1937, after its completion, but on December 7, 1941, was closed to the public for the duration of World War II, during which only authorized traffic, in convoys, was permitted. It reopened September 2, 1945, and by 1953, annual attendance had risen to 448,081. The dam closed on November 25, 1963 and March 31, 1969, days of mourning in remembrance of Presidents Kennedy and Eisenhower. In 1995, a new visitor's center was built, and the following year, visits exceeded one million for the first time. The dam closed again to the public on September 11, 2001; modified tours were resumed in December and a new "Discovery Tour" was added the following year. Today, nearly a million people per year take the tours of the dam offered by the Bureau of Reclamation.