A short trip to US

This summer, we are taking a short trip to US. We drove across the border from Vancouver. There is no waiting at the border. That’s fantastic. We spent a night in Seattle, with an extended family and close friends. Then we drove east. 

Washington call itself the evergreen state. But that is true only for the western part. The eastern part is very dry. The coastal mountain gives abundant rain to the west and blocks almost all moisture to the east. For most part of the east, it was a never green state, at least before the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam.

We drove east toward the Grand Coulee Dam. It’s the largest hydro dam in US, and was the largest hydro dam in the world until the Three Gorge Dam was built. The Grand Coulee Dam is truly grand.  It produces three times more electricity than the Hoover Dam. Somehow, the Hoover Dam is a lot more famous. 

The Grand Coulee Dam was built around the same time as the Hoover Dam. This reflected the mood of America at that time. This mood was best captured by Woody Guthrie’s song Grand Coulee Dam.

 Well, the world has seven wonders, the travelers always tell

Some gardens and some towers, I guess you know them well
But the greatest wonder is in Uncle Sam's fair land
It's that King Columbia River and the big Grand Coulee Dam

She heads up the Canadian Rockies where the rippling waters glide
Comes a-rumbling down the canyon to meet that salty tide
Of the wide Pacific Ocean where the sun sets in the west
And the big Grand Coulee country in the land I love the best

In the misty crystal glitter of that wild and windward spray
Men have fought the pounding waters and met a watery grave
Well, she tore their boats to splinters but she gave men dreams to dream
Of the day the Coulee Dam would cross that wild and wasted stream

Uncle Sam took up the challenge in the year of Thirty three
For the farmer and the factory and all of you and me
He said, "Roll along Columbia. You can ramble to the sea
But river while you're ramblin' you can do some work for me"

Now in Washington and Oregon you hear the factories hum
Making chrome and making manganese and light aluminum
And there roars a mighty furnace now to fight for Uncle Sam
Spawned upon the King Columbia by the big Grand Coulee Dam

In the misty crystal glitter of that wild and windward spray
Men have fought the pounding waters and met a watery grave
Well, she tore their boats to splinters but she gave men dreams to dream
Of the day the Coulee Dam would cross that wild and wasted stream

A video of Woody Guthrie’s Grand Coulee Dam

https://youtu.be/5vLZOKshJPs

Today, that spirit has largely dissipated. But the hard work that went into the Grand Coulee Dam still benefit today’s population greatly. It still irrigates large amount of farmland, turning wasteland into green fertile agricultural fields. The Columbia valley is the place where most computer servers are based, to take advantage of cheap electricity produced by the Grand Coulee Dam.