He's A Dam Engineer

One of the many people that have been a part of my life at some point in time that I found absolutely fascinating was my ex-wife's father Myrle (or Cliff as I knew him, because I cannot pronounce Myrle). Actually, most of the women I have dated or married (now on my second marriage) have had parents that I just enjoy spending time with and a couple of them are still part of my life and my dearest friends. Anyway, Cliff was a Dam Engineer for Los Angeles Water and Power and I loved to have conversations with him about engineering stuff. Once Cliff and Sue's dad Les (Sue being my ex-girlfriend and Les being one of those dearest friends) went on a tour of Hoover Dam together. It's always more interesting going on a tour of some place with an expert, as you have your own private tour guide who may not know the history of a place but they know how it works and can explain the details to you. Unfortunately I have been told that Cliff has Alzheimer's now and doesn't always recognize or remember people. I haven't seen Cliff since Stephanie and I split up, but I still remember the things Cliff used to tell me about his work and I will always have very fond memories of those conversations. In fact one day at work I had to go up to Mount Leigh (location of the Hollywood sign) and when I looked down I saw a lake. It was Lake Hollywood which provides Los Angeles with most of it's water and is held back by Mulholland Dam and instantly it made me think of Cliff as it is an LA Water & Power dam.

As for the photograph I picked for this post it's of Big Bear Lake Dam. The history of Big Bear Lake is long and interesting and the dam is now nearly 100 years old having been built in 1912. Cliff enlightened me to the design of the dam comparing it to Hoover Dam. Hoover Dam is an Arch-Gravity dam and holds back the water of Lake Mead by it's pure weight and size. Big Bear Lake Dam on the other hand is a Multiple Arch-Gravity dam and holds back the water of the lake by the design of it's structures. The thin multiple arches allows the weight of the water to compress the dam into the ground and canyon sides making it even stronger. Big Bear's dam appears very lightweight and open (due to it's thin walls) compared with Hoover Dam and yet it was obviously built well as it survived the Big Bear earthquake (magnitude 6.4) in 1992.