William Mulholland was a key figure in the development of Los Angeles' water system in the early 20th century. As superintendent and later chief engineer of the LA Water Department, he oversaw the construction of the 235-mile Los Angeles Aqueduct to divert water from the Owens Valley to LA. The aqueduct construction from 1908-1913 was a massive project involving thousands of workers. However, Mulholland's career was damaged by the 1928 failure of the St. Francis Dam under his supervision, which caused a devastating flood. Though he resigned in disgrace after, Mulholland had transformed LA into a major city through securing its long-term water supply.

1. Water to the Angels:
William Mulholland, His Monumental
Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles
by Les Standiford
Meagan Warncke
WUPP Section Meeting
April 22, 2016
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Image courtesy of amazon.com

2. William Mulholland
• Born in Belfast, Ireland in 1885
• Arrived in Los Angeles in 1877
• Oversaw the laying of the first iron water
pipeline in Los Angeles in 1880
• Named superintendent of the Los Angeles Water
Department when it was established in 1902
• Named chief engineer in 1911 when the
Department was renamed the Bureau of Water
Works and Supply
2
http://www.scvhistory.com/scvh
istory/lw2054.htm Original
photo by the ''Los Angeles
Examiner'' in 1924

3. Water Issues
• Los Angeles River was the primary source of
water, but it came with seasonal scarcity and
times of torrential flooding.
• Mullholland believed that improved storage
reservoirs, avoiding waste, and conservation
would make the river a more reliable source.
• Since his arrival to Los Angeles in 1877,
however, the population had quintupled.
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4. Politics
• Some said the city should build its own
waterworks, but only the Los Angeles City Water
Company (private company created in 1868 by
three L.A. businessmen) was authorized to sell
the river’s water
• The company’s lease expired in 1898, but it
would take 4 years for negotiations between the
company and the city to play out.
• From this, the Los Angeles Water Department
was created in 1902, naming Mulholland its
superintendent.
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5. The LA City Waterworks System
buildings (January 18, 1898)
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Image courtesy of:
http://waterandpower.org/museum/LA's_Early_Water_Works_System.html

6. Mulholland as Superintendent
• 2 principal items on his agenda:
– Construction of a underground storage facility above
the Glendale Narrows
– Installing meters on every customer’s line
• Once the pumps for the storage facility were
online it was quickly discovered that excess water
from the lines were being discharged through
faulty gates into the system’s sewer lines.
• 9 million gallons of water were being lost each
day.
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7. Beginnings of the Los Angeles
Aqueduct
• Mulholland reached out to Fred Eaton, ex-mayor of Los
Angeles, who had always had the idea of bringing
water down from the Owens River into Los Angeles
• They set out several times to survey the land to see if
the idea would work.
• On the 2nd trip they brought reporters, the city clerk,
and some of the L.A. councilmen.
• Mulholland and Eaton both agreed that geography
would make it easy for the water from Owens River to
travel the 235 miles to Los Angeles by the force of
gravity pulling it down the mountains.
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8. Surveying the Land
8
Image courtesy of: http://waterandpower.org/museum/Mulholland_Biography.html

9. US Bureau of Reclamation
• Created in 1899 by Congress (and then called the
Reclamation Service) as a subdivision of the U.S.
Geological Survey.
• Charged with investigating the use of irrigation in arid
regions of the country to easy drought conditions.
• Owens Valley citizens quickly applied for such a project
and argued that all public lands in the valley that could
benefit from the project be withdrawn from any claim
by private interests.
• J.B. Lippincott (employee of the Bureau) was in charge
of the potential Owens Valley project.
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10. Gaining Water Rights to Owens River
• Mulholland and Eaton had to work quickly on
gaining the water rights to the river as well as buy
the land along the river and land in Long Valley
that would be needed for a storage reservoir.
• Some believe that Lippincott was aware of this
and “stepped aside” for Mulholland and Eaton to
be able to purchase the land.
– He was collecting consulting fees from the city for the
survey of Southern California water sources
– Used Eaton as a resource evaluating various
applications for rights-of-way across public lands in
the Long Valley.
10

11. Joseph B. Lippincott, Fred A. Eaton, and William Mulholland
(1906 Los Angeles Times Photo)
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12. Construction Begins
• After the bond election passed in June of 1907
by a margin of 11 to 1, construction began on
the aqueduct in 1908.
• Construction was divided up into 11 divisions
and a cement plant.
• The number of men who were on the payroll
the first year was 2,629 and peaked at 6,060 in
May 1909.
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13. By The Numbers
• The original project consisted of:
– 24 mi (39 km) of open unlined canal, 37 mi (60 km) of
lined open canal,
– 97 mi (156 km) of covered concrete conduit,
– 43 mi (69 km) of concrete tunnels, 12.00 mi (19.31 km)
steel siphons,
– 120 mi (190 km) of railroad track, two hydroelectric plants,
three cement plants,
– 170 mi (270 km) of power lines,
– 240 mi (390 km) of telephone line,
– 500 mi (800 km) of roads,
– later expanded with the construction of the Mono
Extension and the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct.
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14. Transportation
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Transportation was largely by
mule power when the Los
Angeles Aqueduct was under
construction. This photo
taken in 1912 shows a 52-
mule team hauling sections of
aqueduct pipe. Work on the
aqueduct was started on
September 20, 1907.
(Los Angeles Public Library)

15. Construction
15
Three men stand
inside one section
of pipe to be used
on the L.A.
Aqueduct--one man
stands outside. The
pipe section is at
least twice as high
as the men
standing inside. It
was built by
Treadwell
Construction Co.,
Midland.
(Los Angeles Public
Library)

16. Construction
16
A view of early pipe used for building
the L.A. Aqueduct to Owens Valley,
done between 1907 and 1913. The
aqueduct was considered the 2nd
greatest engineering accomplishment
of its age, after the Panama Canal.
Here men are working with a large
pipe being buried in a trench. (1910)
(Los Angeles Public Library)

17. “There it is. Take it.”
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power historic film on the construction and
opening of the Los Angeles Aqueduct
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18. Water Wars
• California Water Wars: series of conflicts between the city
of Los Angeles and farmers and ranchers in the Owens
Valley of Eastern California.
• By the 1920s, so much water was diverted from the Owens
Valley that agriculture became difficult.
• This led to the farmers trying to destroy the aqueduct in
1924.
• Los Angeles prevailed and kept the water flowing.
• By 1926, Owens Lake at the bottom of Owens Valley was
completely dry due to water diversion.
• The 1974 film Chinatown was inspired by the California
Water Wars and features a fictionalized version of the
conflict as a central plot element.
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19. St. Francis Dam
• Mulholland's career effectively ended on March 12,
1928, when the St. Francis Dam failed twelve hours
after he and his assistant, Assistant Chief Engineer and
general manager Harvey Van Norman, had personally
inspected the site.
• Mulholland took full responsibility for what has been
called the worst US civil engineering disaster of the
20th century and resigned at the end of 1929.
• "Whether it is good or bad, don't blame anyone else,
you just fasten it on me. If there was an error in human
judgment, I was the human, I won't try to fasten it on
anyone else.”
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20. St. Francis Dam
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Image courtesy of:
Stearns, H.T. USGS -
http://libraryphoto.cr.usgs
.gov/cgi-
bin/show_picture.cgi?ID=I
D.%20Stearns,%20H.T.%20
664

21. St. Francis Dam
21
Image courtesy of:
http://photos.lapl.org/carl
web/jsp/DoSearch?databa
seID=968&index=w&terms
=00009829
Standing
section with
fragments
from east
side of dam

22. Later Life
• Mulholland formally retired in November
1929 and spent the rest of his life in relative
seclusion, devastated by the tragedy.
• In retirement, he consulted on the Hoover
Dam and Colorado River Aqueduct projects.
• He died in 1935 and is buried at Forest Lawn
Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale,
California, alongside Los Angeles Aqueduct
chief electrical engineer Ezra F. Scattergood.
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