Today, Jan 31, we went into Fountain Hills for lunch and stopped to watch the Fountain Hills Fountain!
(Click the arrow to watch the video)
This is one of the
world's tallest man-made fountains. It serves as a focal point for the
community and attracts thousands of visitors each year.
The
fountain was built in 1970 by Robert McCulloch the year before reconstruction
of the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, another of McCulloch's projects. If you ever get a chance to visit the bridge you should go!
The
fountain sprays water for about fifteen minutes every hour at the top of the
hour. The plume rises from a concrete water lily sculpture in the center of a
large man-made lake.
The
fountain, driven by three 600 horsepower turbine pumps, sprays water at
a rate of 7,000 gallons per minute though an 18-inch nozzle. With all three
pumps and under ideal conditions, the fountain reaches 560 feet in
height, though in normal operation only two of the pumps are used, with a
fountain height of around 300 feet. When built, it was the world's
tallest fountain and held that record for over a decade.
The fountain is a tourist attraction that lots of people come to see.
