I know what you mean, I used to think about this as I went through the Elan Valley quite often. The Victorians dammed the valley to supply water to Birmingham a

I know what you mean, I used to think about this as I went through the Elan Valley quite often. The Victorians dammed the valley to supply water to Birmingham and even though being in a rural part of Wales few people would see them compared to most industrial constructions they put real effort into the aesthetics and made them look stunning. If we were damming a valley today we'd build some hideous concrete monolith and call it a day without even putting a nice facade over it.