Law Practice,
Environmental & Energy
Oct. 28, 2021
St. Francis Dam: California's worst civil engineering disaster
The 1928 collapse of the dam unleashed a flood that killed almost 500 people in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. It is regularly listed as one of the nation’s worst civil engineering disasters, yet is largely unknown to today’s Californians.
John S. Caragozian
Email: caragozian@gmail.com
John is a Los Angeles-based lawyer and sits on the Board of the California Supreme Court Historical Society. He welcomes ideas for future monthly columns on California's legal history at caragozian@gmail.com.
The 1928 St. Francis Dam collapse unleashed a flood that killed almost 500 people in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. It is regularly listed as one of the nation's worst civil engineering disasters, yet is largely unknown to today's Californians.
Modern southern California began with an aqueduct that brought water 233 miles from the Owens Valley to arid Los Angeles. Completed in 1913, the aqueduct allowed the...
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