 When Secretary Wilbur spoke at the ceremony starting the building of the railway between Las Vegas and the dam site on September 17 , 1930 , he named the dam " Hoover Dam " , citing a tradition of naming dams after Presidents , though none had been so honored during their terms of office . Wilbur justified his choice on the ground that Hoover was " the great engineer whose vision and persistence ... has done so much to make [ the dam ] possible " . One writer complained in response that " the Great Engineer had quickly drained , <unk> , and <unk> the country . " 
