History of the National Park Service and multi purpose river basin development programs like the Tennessee Valley Authority which began in the 1930s and spread to river valleys in all parts of the country after World War II. Lake Mead was the first National Recreation Area. The Boulder Canyon Project Act, passed in 1928, authorized the Bureau of Reclamation to construct Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. Work began in 1931 and the dam, highest in the Western Hemisphere, was completed in 1935. The next year, under provisions of an agreement with the Bureau of Reclamation, the National Park Service assumed responsibility for all recreational activities
Course of the Colorado River load. The area around the confluence is dominated geographically by Navajo Mountain which rises over a mile (1.6 km) above the surrounding landscape, which is part of the Navajo Nation. Rainbow Bridge, one of the highest natural bridges in the world, is located at the tip of an arm of Lake Powell at the foot of Navajo Mountain. Glen Canyon Dam, which creates Lake Powell, is situated in the town of Page in northern Arizona only about by river from the Utah border. The dam impounds the Colorado primarily for hydroelectricity generation. In front of the dam the Glen Canyon