Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam, called the Old World Wall by Ulysses, is a concrete arch-gravity dam on the Colorado River in 2281. It lies on the border between the former U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada and serves as a major flashpoint for the factions of the Mojave Wasteland.

Background
One of the wonders of the Old World, Hoover Dam straddles the Black Canyon along the Colorado River and impounds Lake Mead, one of the largest reservoirs in the pre-War United States. The dam became a major supplier of power and water to what would eventually become the Four States Commonwealth. The company town that originally housed its construction, Boulder City, continued its life as a municipality.

As the resource crisis escalated in the 21st century, the dam was fortified with anti-aircraft weapons to protect against an aerial attack. In 2077, the People's Republic of China attempted to sabotage the dam. The attack, led by their Crimson Dragoon special forces, was foiled by U.S. forces.

When the Great War first broke out, some of Mr. House's laser battery systems kept the Hoover Dam in almost untouched condition, along with a majority of Las Vegas. However, due to the war, the plant was shut down, abandoned and left to the elements for nearly two centuries. In 2274, Hoover Dam was rediscovered by the New California Republic (NCR). When the first NCR scouts arrived at Hoover Dam, Mr. House was spurred into action by the sign of civilization. He sent his Securitron army out onto the New Vegas Strip and rallied the tribals occupying the city, ensuring that when the NCR first reached New Vegas, they would return with stories of a city of lights in the middle of the desert, bringing in the tourist revenue required for Mr. House to carry forward his plans. He worried about the independence of his new city's power source, but fortunately the arrival of Caesar's Legion in the region meant that the NCR could not take the dam and the Strip without leaving them vulnerable to the Legion. Mr. House and the NCR drew up the Treaty of New Vegas, out of necessity more than anything. 95% of the dam's power output would go to the NCR, and in return Vegas' independence would be guaranteed. Within a year of the treaty, the NCR had the dam running at 50% capacity and New Vegas was running bright on its 5%. At one point in time, the NCR had the dam running at 75% capacity but, for unknown reasons, the dam's output declined back to 50% capacity.

In 2277, the Legion, led by the Malpais Legate, attempted to take Hoover Dam, but were defeated shortly after when Chief Hanlon, alongside NCR Rangers and First Recon sharpshooters, performed a tactical retreat to destroy the Legion's elite forces by trapping them in Boulder City with NCR troopers under the command of General Oliver managing to successfully hold the dam and both decimate and rout the Legion's main force. After the Battle of Willow Beach and the Battle of Arizona Spillway, the dam stands as the only foothold the NCR has east of the Colorado. It is the central point of the power struggle between NCR, the Legion, and Mr. House, and with the Second Battle of Hoover Dam on the horizon, it is certain that the outcome will determine the fate of the entire Mojave Wasteland.

To weigh the events in favor of the Republic, Colonel Cassandra Moore and General Lee Oliver have fortified the dam and stationed an entire battalion of the NCR Army here to face the Legion.

While troopers are active here, there are also a large number of civilian contractors and engineers who are trying to keep the dam running as smoothly as possible. They are of a secondary concern to Moore, who is preparing for an impending attack by Caesar and a visit by President Kimball.

Layout
Hoover Dam covers a large area with extensive exterior and interior sections, despite there only being one map marker for the entire location. Following the Colorado River downstream (or coming upstream from Cottonwood Cove), the player character will encounter a pontoon barrier.

Western exterior
The west side of the dam is controlled by the NCR and features the anti-aircraft gun seen on billboards. The fast-travel map marker puts the player character just outside of the entrance to the Hoover Dam visitor center along former Highway 93. Just north of the visitor center building is a stage and viewing area. To the west of the stage is a large anti-aircraft cannon.

Across from the visitor center stands The Hoover Dam dedication monument, designed by Oscar Hansen, featuring the Winged Figures of the Republic. A plaque between the sculptures is damaged but reads:

Atop the dam
Continuing north along the barricaded road leads to the top of the dam itself. Two towers are along the south edge of the road. Access to Hoover Dam Intake Tower 01 and 02 is via a bridge connected to the north side of the road. The road ends at a checkpoint door which is inaccessible until any of the final quests, such as Eureka!. The checkpoint contains a Very Hard locked terminal and a few lockers with minor loot. It also houses a small sniper nest on the roof, accessible via a ladder.

Base of the dam
Access to the north and south bases of the dam is blocked off by a pontoon barrier constructed with toxic waste barrels, which holds sections of the chainlink fence in place along the top of the water. Weights keep the submerged ends in place and the whole structure taut.

The south base of the dam is accessible by descending through interior sections of the dam and exiting from the second tier of either Hoover Dam Power Plant 02 or 04. There are spectacular gushes of water from outflow pipes high up on the east and west walls of the river canyon. It is possible to swim from the west to the east side and climb up on the concrete area by swimming all the way to the south end and walking up the sandbar to the southeast corner.

Eastern exterior
The east side of the dam is controlled by the Legion. Going west along the barricaded road leads to the top of the dam itself. Access to Hoover Dam Intake Tower 03 and 04 is via a bridge connected to the north side of the road. There are two towers along the south edge of the road, one is ruined.

Interior
See the individual buildings and sections for descriptions of the dam interior.

Notable loot

 * Hoover Dam snow globe - On the central reception desk in the visitor center.
 * Two Chinese stealth armors - In the offices' radioactive barrel storage, in the middle stack of crates.
 * President Kimball's suit - Can be looted off his corpse if he dies during the quests Arizona Killer or You'll Know It When It Happens.
 * General Oliver's uniform - Can be looted off his corpse during the quest Veni, Vidi, Vici and No Gods, No Masters.
 * 12 frag grenades - In a locker in intake tower 2.
 * Hoover Dam saferoom key - One found in each of the three desks in a large T-shaped room between the central and eastern wings of Hoover Dam offices, with another being found in a desk in the room directly to the right after entering through the Hoover Dam power plant 01 door. Opens a saferoom in the second floor of the visitor center that contains nothing of interest.
 * Elaine's letter - Next to a bed in the soldiers' quarters around the corner from Quartermaster Bardon, in the Hoover Dam offices.

Appearances
Hoover Dam appears in Fallout: New Vegas and was going to appear in the canceled Van Buren.

Behind the scenes

 * The Hoover Dam is based on the real world location of Hoover Dam, a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona.
 * Many sections and landmarks of the real world Hoover Dam are seen in-game, including the towering bronze Winged Figures of the Republic sculptures, plaque and flagpole, dam blueprints, visitor center, spillways, power plants, intake towers, lower levels, architecture, outbuildings, and structure of the dam itself, art deco style, and details in the surrounding area.
 * The maps of the Hoover Dam scattered around the Mojave are blueprints created in the 1930s and can be seen in the University of Nevada Las Vegas Digital Collections.
 * On the side of one of the stone guard towers is a banner reading, "LEGION GO HOME." This is a reference to the real life slogan "Ami go home," originally a protest from European communists against US occupiers after WWII, later adopted by European peace movements during the Vietnam War and more recently the Gulf War.
 * The other side of this is a reference to the film Monty Python's Life of Brian wherein the main character writes "Romanes eunt domus," grammatically incorrect for "Romans, go home." He is later corrected by a Roman centurion.
 * During the battle at Hoover Dam, most non-player characters wear masks. This has been motivated by J.E.Sawyer as an attempt to reduce memory usage, since "FaceGen/FaceFX data can be expensive."
 * Spare Us the Cutter


 * Hoover Dam originally had a pair of water exhaust jets that shot a vast amount of water down into the river below. While these are present in the final game they have been disabled for some reason. The problem with this effect is they cannot be seen at extreme range due to lacking LOD models, meaning the suddenly teleport in out of thin air as one approaches. Looking at the game's intro sequence, these water jets are prominently displayed on shots of the dam, which suggests they are indeed supposed to be on all the time. They were likely removed due to level of detail issues, as the engine doesn't support animated LOD objects.
 * There is a long winding road leading to the Legate's Camp that is NOT navmeshed, and in fact the area is filled with two big triggers that teleport anything that gets stuck in here to either side of the big gates. The area was used as a staging ground for reinforcement enemies during other parts of the dam fight, but their script is commented out so they do not seem to actually be used at all. There is a conga line system used to send one set of them in to fight, but this seems to be disabled. There is actually a trigger behind the gate that enables some enemies here but it is impossible to ever get to in the vanilla game. This suggests however, that at some stage the player character WAS supposed to fight their way up here to the Legate's camp. The trigger that enables the pair of enemies that were supposed to fight the player character is disabled so never triggers even if they did somehow get inside. Further up there are also crucifixion telegraph poles lining the road lending further credence to this being a genuine route for the player character at some stage (it is impossible to ever see them otherwise). Interestingly some of them are hidden behind parts of the cliff that show how the area was redesigned over time.
 * There were supposed to be Followers medics helping injured NCR soldiers during the endgame fight if the one convinced Julia Farkas to help the NCR. The NPC exists as VFSFollowersDamDoctor, and his dialogue exists in VdialogueHooverDam.
 * There is an unused/deleted empty map called "Arizona Spillway Tunnel" (HooverDamIntArizonaSpillway). The Arizona Spillway is a real part of Hoover Dam, and at one end features a long cylindrical tunnel that drains off excess water. The spillway is specifically indicated in the official strategy guide. It is indeed the big pipe/ditch area which has a bridge over it by the endgame. If one looks under the bridge there is a large grating, as well as a small hatch, either of which may have lead to the deleted map. It is also where the game lore says the NCR were pushed back off the East side of the dam before shoring up the defenses on the dam proper leading to the stalemate at the start of the game. It was clearly an important location at one point (see also Cass' cut dialogue relating to it).
 * Originally there would be gun turrets at Hoover dam. There are full scripts and messages (vHDLVLTurretScript, vHDTurretMessageNCR01, vHDTurretMessageNCR01b, etc) that show they would be initially disabled in the conflict, and one could then repair them to help fight against the Legion. In the final game there are no gun turrets anywhere near Hoover dam.
 * There is a LOT of reworked/redundant code involved with the endgame fight. It is difficult to unpick it all as there are several iterations/implementations of things like the reinforcement code as it was clearly realized having so many enemies in the area at once would kill console performance. It is difficult to separate what was abandoned from what actually works, but I'd guess there is unused stuff here.