In a first of its kind effort, the Bureau of Reclamation Land Surveying and Geomatics Engineering Services Office built a detailed, highly accurate, as-built conditions model of Hoover Dam’s 75-year old Monument Plaza using a Leica ScanStation 2 high-definition laser scanner from Leica Geosystems. Monument Plaza includes the Winged Figures of the Republic, two 30-foot high, statuary bronze sculptures that rest on a base of black diorite set atop a terrazzo floor. The floor is inlaid with a celestial map that pinpoints the precise astronomical time—September 30, 1935, 8:56 pm—when Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicated the dam. Near the figures and elevated above the floor is a compass framed by the signs of the zodiac. There is also a nearby plaque commemorating the 96 men who died during construction of the dam. Read More
