The Biggest Concrete Arch Bridge In World

Next to the Hoover Dam, they're building the biggest concrete arch bridge in the world across the mighty Colorado River, connecting Nevada and Arizona. The arch was finished last week and the bridge is to open at the end of 2010.

What Happened To The Luxor Pyramid?

It used to be shiny, black and gleaming. Now it's dull tarpaulin grey, not smooth at all. It's been crowded in by new buildings, so you can't really see it.

Candy Colored Tropicana

Storm Clouds Over The Strip

I was walking down the Strip yesterday, when suddenly black clouds rolled in and everything went dark.

Gold Coast Casino

Gold Coast is a locals' casino behind the Rio, where they come for the prime rib and the 24 hour enormous bowling alley.

Boulder City Statues

Boulder City has a lot of statues depicting the workers who built Hoover Dam and their families. The top guy made sure all the bathrooms had toilet paper and he cleaned them with that big brush. All this reminds me of growing up in communist Poland, where we had a lot of statues dedicated to the proletariat, but the women weren't nearly so stylish - they usually wielded an axe, too, and the children had nothing to laugh about.

Boulder City

Stuck between rocks and a lake.

Boulder City Houses

Boulder City was created in the 1930s to house the workers building Boulder Dam, now called Hoover Dam, and there are no casinos. Affluent people have built lovely homes overlooking Lake Mead - the one in the middle you can barely make out, because it blends with the surroundings perfectly. The teensy worker houses have all been preserved - my one bedroom apartment is probably bigger.

P.S. I have it on good authority that the top house belonged to the late Mr. Whipple, he of the toilet paper TV commercials "Please don't squeeze the Charmin". What is it with Boulder City and toilet paper?

Lake Mead

Lake Mead, the reservoir for Vegas, was created by the Hoover Dam. As you can see by the top photo, the water level has dropped drastically - soon there'll be no lake at all. Water shortage is a colossal problem for the entire South West.

Red Rock Casino

Hideous Housing

Summerlin, a development on the west side of Vegas, is a trailer park for the rich. Houses are built 2 feet from each other all the way to the foothills of the mountains - this is paradise? The West has wide open vistas, yet people insist on living like sardines. If you're lucky, you'll get a view of other sardine dwellings in the valley, and very far away, you can make out the Strip.