The Best Dams & Waterworks Documentaries

Engineering & Megastructures - 31 free documentaries about dams & waterworks.

Start with What Really Happened at the Oroville Dam Spillway? (18 min, Practical Engineering), then The Wild Story of the Teton Dam Failure (19 min, Practical Engineering). All 31 documentaries here are free to watch from their makers' official uploads. To read deeper, the top-rated book on dams & waterworks is Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner.

• What Really Happened at the Oroville Dam Spillway? (18 min, Practical Engineering)
• The Wild Story of the Teton Dam Failure (19 min, Practical Engineering)
• Sawing a Dam in Half (on Purpose) (21 min, Practical Engineering)
• How Fish Survive Hydro Turbines (22 min, Practical Engineering)
• Are Beavers Actually Good at Dams? (19 min, Practical Engineering)
• Fixing the Most Dangerous Dam in the World (22 min, Practical Engineering)
• This Spillway Failed On Purpose (19 min, Practical Engineering)
• Rebuilding the Oroville Dam Spillways (21 min, Practical Engineering)
• How Hoover Dam Works (66 min, Animagraffs)
• Why are the Dutch So Good at Waterworks? (22 min, Practical Engineering)
• The Troubling Danger of Dams (20 min, Wendover Productions)
• Hoover Dam (S5, E15) | Modern Marvels (45 min, HISTORY)
• World's Biggest Mega Dams and Channels | Masters of Engineering (52 min, Free Documentary)
• The Wild Story of the Taum Sauk Dam Failure (20 min, Practical Engineering)
• Why Colombia’s $4BN Dam Broke (14 min, The B1M)
• Inside The 1920s River Dam That Powered An Entire Nation | Building Ireland (48 min, Absolute History)
• All Dams Are Temporary (16 min, Practical Engineering)
• How I recreated Hoover Dam in 3D (historical accuracy, research, modeling, and more) (50 min, Animagraffs)
• What is a Weir? (8 min, Practical Engineering)
• The Race to Replace a Cracked Dam (25 min, The B1M)
• What Really Happened At Edenville and Sanford Dams? (14 min, Practical Engineering)
• The Most Dangerous Dams (9 min, Practical Engineering)
• The World's Tallest Mega-Dam Will Block Asia (19 min, The B1M)
• The Radioactive Dam That Can’t Be Fixed (17 min, The B1M)
• Germany's Wild Reservoirs (44 min, Free Documentary - Nature)
• Why Australia’s Doomed Dam Can’t Be Fixed (9 min, The B1M)
• What Happens When You Remove a Dam (10 min, The B1M)
• Why Are 96,000,000 Black Balls on This Reservoir? (12 min, Veritasium)
• This $3BN Mega-Dam Changes the Weather (11 min, The B1M)
• “We Couldn't Use It”: Thai Villagers Facing Water Scarcity Next To A Mega Dam | Power To The People (45 min, CNA Insider)
• Laos’ Hydropower Plans: Will It Drown In Its Own Ambition? | Insight (46 min, CNA Insider)

Top-Rated Books About Dams & Waterworks

1. Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner - View on Amazon