Lake Mead is the largest man-made body of water in the United States. Located on the Colorado River behind Hoover Dam, it spans Nevada and Arizona. The reservoir reaches 112 miles past the dam, and contains roughly 28,500,000 acre-feet of water. Plans for Boulder Dam (the modern-day Hoover Dam) began with the Reclamation Act of 1902; construction of the dam began in 1931. The lake is named after the commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, Elwood Mead, and became the country's first national recreation area in 1964.
Lake Powell is the United States' second-largest man-made lake. Located on the Colorado River between Utah and Arizona, it formed following completion of Glen Canyon Dam, a 10-year construction project that began in 1956. The lake has more than 2,000 miles of shoreline (more than the western U.S. coast), took 17 years to fill to the high-water mark, and stretches 186 miles from the dam. The lake is named for John Wesley Powell, a Civil War veteran who conducted the first geological survey of Glen Canyon in 1869.
Lake Nasser, which spans Egypt and Sudan, is the world's largest man-made lake. This lake, formed by the construction of the High Dam in the 1960s, is 310 miles long, and up to 600 feet deep. Lake Nasser provides irrigation and generates electricity for all of Egypt. The lake also has rich wildlife. It hosts 32 species of fish, of which fishermen catch 80,000 tons per year. More than 100 bird species live around the lake, as well as many mammals and reptiles. The lake's shore varies from rugged hills to sandy beaches, and is home to peasant fishermen and Bedouin sheep herders.
The Panama Canal is a 50-mile-long waterway that links the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Count Ferdinand de Lesseps started the project on January 10, 1880, and Colonel George W. Goethals completed it in April 1907. The Canal cost approximately $375,000,000, and employed 56,307 people during its construction. As many as 25,000 men may have died building the canal. Ships traveling through the Panama Canal rise 85 feet above sea level.
