Colorado Connection Expansion, The

Black Canyon, 16 May 1927.

Marguerite Grant couldn't have asked for a better day for that helicopter trip. While acknowledging the usefulness of those modern means, she did not like to fly, particularly on an experimental prototype; she preferred to keep her feet firmly on the ground and got on an aircraft only when it was strictly necessary, such as that day. It was too important matter to think of delegating anyone, not even her trusted Executive Officer, who had offered to go in her place. Marguerite had been following this project for years and was convinced that its approval was now near, especially after talking to Herbert Hoover, the Secretary of Commerce, with whom she had lunch the previous week.

When she was in sight of the Colorado River, she motioned for the pilot to fly over it. From above, she could enjoy a spectacle without equal; fascinated by the power and colors of that river that crept between the rocks, her mind projected the image of a concrete giant that overlapped what her eyes were transmitting to her. Where there was nothing now, a dam would have arisen that would have no equal in all the United States. It would also have been possible to build roads that, using that giant as a bridge, would have joined the river banks from side to side. It was a vision that lasted barely an instant but gave her the certainty of what the future of the Black canyon would be.