The Book…Hard Hats of Niagara A massive project that generated more power than Hoover or Coolie dams when it went online. From first blast to first power in just three years, there are 46 thrilling chapters, 301 pages, and 139 historic action photos.

The Niagara Power Project is a green energy dynamo that has electrified Americas Grid for over 60 years. Hard Hats of Niagara showcases the men and women who sweat, bled, and died to bring it to fruition. It tells of the licensing issues and conflict with the Tuscarora Nation. It then takes the reader into the personal narrative and the fast-paced, perilous activities of constructing the most powerful hydroelectric dam of its era.

During the project, 20 men went to work, never to return home—each of them were victims of fatal accidents.

Barroom fights and tempestuous women embellish the action. Dynamite explosions, truck and crane wrecks, a fighter jet crash, add to the dangerous daily conflicts.

Ride beside Ron Hacker as he navigates his massive Euclid dump truck down the steep slick slope of the haul road. Sense his alarm as the big truck suddenly veers out of control and skids toward the near vertical edge. Two other Euclid's had crashed into the raging waters of the Niagara gorge in the same place. One driver never surfaced. (Chapter 5)

Feel Carol Rocque’s despair as she prays the rosary, attempting to fight off the panic and grief when her husband does not return from his shift. (Chapter 33)

Celebrate with Allan Vandenbosch as the proprietor’s lovely red-haired wife sparks up the project’s patrons in the pall of smoke and music at the Frontier House. (Chapter 6)

Feel Ken Glennon’s anticipation as the voluptuous night clerk invites him into the darkened supply room. (Chapter 23)

Realize Lt. Ed Lozaw’s disbelief as he pulls a snagged wiping rag from his crane’s pulley, only to discover his finger is gone. Sense surprise when another worker finds Ed’s finger…in his lunch. (Chapter 12)

Experience terror for Ed Methot’s fate as he struggles for control of his flaming fighter jet above the city of Niagara Falls. His controls are burned through. He is on a fatal trajectory toward the power project. (Chapter 38)

Anguish with Tony LaMacchia as he leaps from his exploding truck, only to land in quicksand. He sinks lower and lower, hidden from rescue by the dark foreboding night. (Chapter 13)

Sense Betty Gelfand’s fear as she runs down a dark, 100-foot rickety stairwell. She then gives first aid to an injured man, only to discover that she must stay with him as a crane lifts them in a rescue cage several hundred feet to the top. (Chapter 19)

Stare in fear as blood runs down Bill Glennon’s face after he is slammed in the head with a twelve-inch wrench. Sense the determination when his friend the Big Swede rushes to Bill’s aid, knocking would be rescuers from his path. (Chapter 16)

The Memorial section is dedicated to the twenty men who were fatalities building the Niagara Power Project.

ALSO INCLUDED IS A MAP OF THE NIAGARA POWER PROJECT STRUCTURES AND EVENT SITES.

Egypt’s pyramids took centuries to build. The expanse of the Niagara Power Project is more massive. Yet it produced first power in an incredible 3 years. Hard Hats of Niagara takes the reader to a time and place in mid Twentieth Century, never to be witnessed again.

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Hard Hats of Niagara by Ken Glennon Niagara Power Project Dam Construction

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