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 outside wall of the largest remaining portion of the Saint Francis Dam after its collapse, known as the tombstone section. Text from newspaper caption for a similar photograph: Graphic Views of Flood-swept Area Near Castaic After Dam Break: Remaining Section of Dam With Crumbled Sections at Base (Times photo.) [Los Angeles Times, 14 Mar. 1928: 14] Text from negative sleeve: Saint Francis Dam
Type
image
Format
b&w nitrate negative
Identifier
uclamss_1429_1891 ark:/21198/zz002dcs5p
Language
No linguistic content
Subject
Dam failures--California--San Francisquito Canyon Disaster Weather Saint Francis Dam Failure, Calif., 1928
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