Access to this collection is generously supported by Arcadia funds. 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. View of the path of the flood following the failure of the Saint Francis Dam in San Francisquito Canyon. Large chunks of the concrete dam are strewn on the ground, including one in the center background with the steps of the face of the dam visible on the left side. The background boulder is about half a mile downstream from the dam. The remaining wing wall of the dam is in the distant background. Text from negative sleeve: Saint Francis Dam
Type
image
Format
b&w nitrate negative
Identifier
uclamss_1429_1880 ark:/21198/zz002dcrsh
Language
No linguistic content
Subject
Dam failures--California--San Francisquito Canyon Saint Francis Dam Failure, Calif., 1928 Environment Flood damage--California--San Francisquito Canyon
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