Photo submitted by Warren County Historical Society Whirlybird cranes like the ones in this photo were used throughout the construction of Kinzua Dam. Harry Glotz wired the cranes to the operators could receive instructions from workers at ground level.

It took an Act of Congress, $108 million, 3 million cubic yards of earth, 500,000 cubic yards of concrete, and workers doing a host of jobs to build Kinzua Dam.

This story, and others like it to follow, will feature one of those local workers who played a part in the creation of the largest American dam east of the Mississippi River.

When construction of the dam itself began in 1960, Harry Glotz had been paving the way, on and off, for a decade.

The Flood Control Acts of 1936 and 1938 authorized the construction of the dam.

Glotz, 89, of North Warren, was a lineman for Bell Telephone of Pennsylvania.

Photo submitted by Warren County Historical Society Whirlybird cranes like the ones in this photo were used throughout the construction of Kinzua Dam. Harry Glotz wired the cranes to the operators could receive instructions from workers at ground level.

In the late 1940s, he was wondering why he should replace all the telephone poles that led to communities that would be under water in the not-so-distant future.

Kinzua and Corydon had their own telephone systems — “a farmers’ telephone system” — Glotz said. “All we provided was long-distance.”

But, he was replacing squirrel-ridden infrastructure that connected Warren with those communities.

“I was wondering what was going on,” Glotz said, “replacing all these things when this was going to happen.”

As it turned out, he was not improving the connections with the communities; he was ensuring communications with the dam and the many people and companies involved with building it.

Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry Harry Glotz of North Warren takes a look back at his part in the construction of Kinzua Dam.

Although he was at the site on and off from the late ’40s through the end of construction in 1965, Glotz was away for two years in the early 1950s. He was drafted and served as a signalman in Korea.

When he returned, he found a position at Bell waiting for him — with a new title.

“I was an installer,” Glotz said. “We were putting telephone connections in for the contractors coming in. And there were a lot of them.”

There were no cell phones then. All of the communication had to have a physical wire.

When giant “whirlybird” cranes were put in position on the job site, people on the ground had to have a way to communicate effectively with the operators. The cabs of the cranes were high above the bridge built for them and the trains that moved concrete and other products from one side of the river to the other.

“We had to provide communications for those guys,” Glotz said. “I was up there a few times.”

Trains ran underneath the cranes, while the booms towered above, both moving concrete most of the time.

Various large vehicles and pieces of equipment were staged near the construction, but not in the way. Glotz ran wires to those equipment pools for public address systems — “whoever they paged would have access to a phone someplace and they would call back,” — and to contractors’ trailers. “There were at least eight construction trailers on the lower side of the dam,” he said. “We provided communications for all of them.”

Later, Glotz ran the lines from the top of the dam to points deep inside and far below for an intercom system.

“After they got the dam built, we had to install a wire from the top of the dam all the way down,” he said. “We had to give them communications.”

The doors to get to those deep points within the dam are at about the same level as the spillway. “I had to go down two flights of stairs — two long flights,” he said.

Unlike some of the spaces up higher, Glotz had some elbow room for that job. “There’s a lot of space,” he said. “I had all kinds of room.”

Phone lines like the ones Glotz was installing around the dam carry some electricity. In the event of certain problems at the dam, large amounts of power could have gone coursing out into the community. Making sure that didn’t happen put Glotz to work for half a year.

“Anything going out of the dam over telephone lines had to be isolated from the dam so no power would go down the telephone lines,” he said. “I was told to go up there to put in isolating transformers.”

Most of that job was much like the rest of his work, with the exception of one day. On that day, he carried the 60 isolating transformers, weighing 90 pounds each, to the station.

Many of the items that were moved during construction could not be hauled by one man.

Air compressors were everywhere during and after the pouring of concrete.

At one point, a large compressor was being pulled up through the shaft that carries water from the upper reservoir to the power generating equipment below.

Those shafts are big enough to drive a truck through, Glotz said. “They had an air compressor come right down through that shaft. They were hoisting it up and the cable broke.”

Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company was running the show in terms of the hydroelectric power and wanted to have the ability to immediately make changes to the power generation at Kinzua Dam from its office in Cleveland.

“They told our company what they wanted,” Glotz said. “What they wanted was communication between the dam and Cleveland.”

The company wanted to be able to find out conditions in the upper reservoir. “They wanted complete control of the water level,” he said. “I’m providing a river gauging station up there so they would know.”

“I was there when they brought in these turbines,” he said. “Huge. It takes one of the biggest cranes around to lift it.”

After the turbine was set in place, it was tested. “One of the workers screwed up and left something in the turbine,” Glotz said. “When they went to fire it up, it ruined the turbine.”

That was a problem. It wasn’t a case of going to the store and getting a new one.

“The thing’s too big to take back out,” Glotz said. “They had to be rewound. It took about four months.”

He said he never heard what happened to that worker. “Everybody makes mistakes.”

Despite the accidents Glotz witnessed and more he heard about, “I never heard about anybody getting killed.”

Glotz was on scene for another major event in 1963.

“I was there when they first fired it up,” he said. “Everybody just stood there with their fingers crossed.”

“When they hit the switch, a big bang, like a shotgun, and the new power plant was generating,” he said. “That was a sigh of relief for everybody.”

Many of the systems Glotz put into place have been replaced over the half-century since the dam was built. A microwave tower on the hillside above the dam has taken the place of many wires. “That microwave tower was being built while I was there,” he said.

Glotz had a role in the construction of a massive feat of engineering in Warren County. He is realistic about the part he played — “you have to give somebody credit… wasn’t me” — but he “would have to say” he is proud to have played it.