Access to this collection is generously supported by Arcadia funds. Side view of a section of the St. Francis Dam, nicknamed "The Tombstone", after the dam collapsed on March 12, 1928. The resulting flood killed over 400 people, and was considered one of the worst civil engineering failures in American history. The dam collapse caused the second greatest loss of life in California history, second only to the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. The St. Francis dam was built between 1924 and 1926 in St. Francisquito Canyon, near present-day Santa Clarita. William Mulholland was the engineer behind the dam's construction, and the dam failed just hours after he had personally given it a safety inspection, effectively ending his career. Text from original nitrate sleeve: Dams (San Francisquito, i.e. St. Francis)
Type
image
Format
b&w nitrate negative
Identifier
ark:/21198/zz00253zhs
Language
No linguistic content
Subject
Dams--California--San Francisquito Canyon Floods--California--Santa Clarita Environment Landmarks Disaster Saint Francis Dam Failure, Calif., 1928
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