Grand Coulee and highest dry falls cliff in the middle. It was created through the process of cataract recession, which included a cataract twice as high as its existing Dry Falls. Grand Coulee is two canyons, with an open basin in the middle. The Upper Coulee is filled, by Banks Lake, is long with walls tall. It links to the Columbia River at Grand Coulee Dam and leads southward, through the surrounding highlands. The entry to the coulee is above the Columbia. It began as the course of a Glacial Columbia River. The Wisconsin ice sheets Okanogan lobe extended southward across the
Grand Coulee Dam Grand Coulee Dam (not including the Third Powerplant) to be $168 million; its actual cost was $163 million in 1943 ($ in dollars). Expenses to finish the power stations and repair design flaws with the dam throughout the 1940s and '50s added another $107 million, bringing the total cost to $270 million ($ in dollars), about 33% over estimates. The Third Powerplant was estimated to cost in 1967, but higher construction costs and labor disputes drove the project's final cost in 1973 to ($ in dollars), about 55% over estimates. Despite estimates being exceeded, the dam became an economic success,