Eighty years ago,
William Mulholland completed his final project:
the St. Francis Dam, which converted San Francisquito Canyon--about 5 miles northeast of what is now
Santa Clarita, California--into a 38,000 acre-foot reservoir for Los Angeles/Owens River aqueduct water.
You're probably familiar with
Mulholland's name --he designed and built the
Los Angeles Aqueduct and the beginning of the
system with which Los Angeles is supplied water from the Central Valley--and as a gesture of gratitude, the city named
its most scenic highway in his honor. Mulholland, the
California Water Wars, the aqueduct, and the dam were also referenced and alluded to extensively in Roman Polanski's
Chinatown.
But
the man who helped build an immense metropolis by bringing water to the desert has only a
small fountain as a memorial to his legacy.
Three minutes before midnight, on March 12, 1928...
posted by fandango_matt
on Mar 13, 2006 -
20 comments
