Image / Men working at Saint Francis Dam site, San Francisquito Canyon (Calif.), circa …

Men working at Saint Francis Dam site, San Francisquito Canyon (Calif.), circa 1925

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Title: Men working at Saint Francis Dam site, San Francisquito Canyon (Calif.), circa 1925
Date Created and/or Issued: 1925
Publication Information: Los Angeles Times
Contributing Institution: UCLA, Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library
Collection: Los Angeles Times Photographic Archives
Rights Information: US
UCLA Library Special Collections, A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library, Box 951575, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575. Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu. Phone: (310) 825-4205
Description: The St. Francis Dam was a 200-foot high concrete gravity-arch dam built between 1924 and 1926 in St. Francisquito Canyon (near present-day Castaic and Santa Clarita). The dam collapsed on March 12, 1928 at two and a half minutes before midnight. The resulting flood killed more than 600 residents plus an unknown number of itinerant farm workers camped in San Francisquito Canyon, making it the 2nd greatest loss of life in California after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It is considered the worst American civil engineering failure in the 20th century.
Type: Image
Format: b&w glass negative
Identifier: uclalat_1429_b3701_G1279
ark:/21198/zz0002p025
Language: No linguistic content
Subject: Dams--Design and construction
Dams--California--San Francisquito Canyon
Environment
Construction workers--California--Los Angeles County
Source: Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection

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