Now That's An Engineering Project!

When we went to Arizona last year, my intrepid companion and I crossed Hoover Dam.  It's not an experience I care to repeat any time soon.  Lots of traffic funneled through an itty-bitty road sucks mightily.  But considering we weren't getting anywhere anyway, we pulled over to snap some pictures and ogle the Hoover Bridge, which was under construction and promised to someday make the trip less onerous.  It wasn't very close to completion, and in fact it was difficult to tell just what it was and how it was going to come together, as you can see from this photo Cujo shot:

A few days ago, @Perrykid put a link up on Twitter that dropped my jaw.  Looks like they're close to finishing the thing, and now it begins to make sense:

I need to call my daddy.  About the most impressive thing I can say about this is, "Ooo!  Big..."  He's an engineer, so I'm sure he can expound on the awesomeness of the design.

The sad part is, once they've finished it, the drive over Hoover Dam will be no more.  They will no longer allow traffic over the dam itself.  So I guess we were lucky to go when a person could still drive one of the most impressive dams in the United States.

Funny.  Didn't appreciate it at the time... now I find myself wishing I had enough vacation left to fight the traffic just once more, with feeling.