Featuring Another Theme-tastic Music Quiz

Approaching the Hoover Dam on a day trip from Las Vegas, you first get these views of Lake Mead, the body of water the Hoover Dam created.

This is the first view of Hoover Dam you get after parking your car at the designated lot.

Dam! Song Query #1 – Who are the movie/tv stars singing “Dammit Janet” in this song from which cult musical?

(What you thought I would feature songs about actual dams?  Nope, don’t have any, but I will share songs about actual bridges at least.  Answers to the query questions as always can be found amongst the tags at the bottom of the post)

Looking to the right, from the same spot, the new Memorial Bridge, that now diverts traffic off of the Dam’s road (which had become too narrow for all those cars).

Memorial statues in the art deco style of the time the dam was completed.

This would not be the last time this trip we would see tourists posing like this in front of something imposing…

Many men died building the Hoover Dam.  But the myth that some bodies are encased in the dam’s cement is just that, a myth. Officials actually felt compelled to include a plaque (not pictured) explaining how that would not have been physically possible, considering the thin layers of cement that were layered and hardened one at a time during construction.

Ed walks ahead onto the dam pathway, while I turn my camera towards structures on Lake Mead.

Dam! Song Query #2 -Which character (and performer) is singing that he is “Damned for All Time” in which classic rock opera?

The Lake Mead water level is now clearly much lower than it was at its height.

Dam! Song Query #3 – Which former boy band member can be heard here exclaiming “Damn, Girl!”?

Not sure whether these pictures accurately convey just how high the dam is and how steep and alarming the look down.

Dam! Song Query #4 – Which music act is “damned if I do, damned if I don’t…”

I felt serious queasiness on the dam and later on the bridge. I realized later at the Grand Canyon and other parks that it is not that I have a fear of heights per se (I can be quite calm in certain high wire situations), but that I have a (9/11 induced) terror of falling (or being flung) from high, especially high man made structures, like open windows or balconies or roof tops.

That irrational terror had a field day with me here.

I think I’ll just step away from the railing for a moment…

Another statue among many honoring the dam’s construction workers:

On the Memorial Bridge overlooking Hoover Dam:

Bridge Song Query #1 – Let’s start real easy.  Name the most famous “Bridge” song, preferably before pressing play:

(As a three year old I would sing “like a bridge over trouble bubbles”…)

Bridge Song Query #2 – Name Simon and Garfunkel’s other famous song with “Bridge” in its title.  But which bridge?  And from where to where does it span?  (Listen all you want, that info is not heard in the lyrics:)

Looking towards Arizona… and back towards Nevada.

Bridge Song Query #3 – Which British diva is singing about “Water Under the Bridge”?

BONUS:

On our way back to Las Vegas, we stopped in the suburb of Henderson to visit the gorgeous cactus garden maintained by the Ethel M chocolate factory (and open to visitors free of charge).

Bridge Song Query #4 – Which classic rock group (fronted by which classic rock diva) is singing about a “Diamond Bridge”?

The factory runs on solar energy from their own solar array.

Solar energy.  Free botanic garden.  Free (tasty) chocolate samples.  Yea, I like this factory.

A sign in the garden explained that the popular golden barrel cactus is nearly extinct in the wild because of over-harvesting in the late 19th century.  Everybody wanted their own golden barrel cactus in their home or office until people realized they had plucked too many out of the desert for the species to continue to sustain itself in its natural environment.

Sweet cactus pears.  You can get cactus pear ice cream and cactus pear steak sauce among other cactus pear delicacies in the Southwest:

Bridge Song Query #5 – The Fellowship of the Ring is having a really bad time with a Balrog at which bridge of Moria? Oh, and who composed this score again?

Extra bonus pic:

I took this shot of the Hoover Dam, Memorial Bridge and Lake Mead from the plane as we flew out of Las Vegas at the end of our Southwest Adventure:

Hope you enjoyed our day of music and sights at Hoover Dam, Memorial Bridge and the cactus garden.