. Bureau of Reclamation

The dam was the result of a bitter debate during the 1920s between two groups: one wanted to irrigate the ancient Grand Coulee with a gravity canal and the other supported a high dam and pumping scheme. Dam supporters won in 1933, but for fiscal reasons the initial design was for a dam 260 ft (79 m) shorter than envisioned and could not support irrigation. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and a consortium of three companies called MWAK (Mason-Walsh-Atkinson Kier Company) began construction that year. After visiting the construction site in August 1934, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt switched from supporting the cheaper "low dam" to the more beneficial "high dam". The high dam was approved by Congress in 1935 and completed in 1942; the first water over-topped its spillway on June 1 of that year.
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