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) 825-4988
Description
Access to this collection is generously supported by Arcadia funds. Access to this collection is generously supported by Haynes Foundation 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. Three geologists and civil engineers (probably) in an elevated area of St. Francisquito Canyon, investigating the failure of the Saint Francis Dam. Three men (onlookers) in hats watch in the distance from atop the Dam. Text from negative sleeve: Saint Francis Dam
Type
image
Format
b&w nitrate negative
Identifier
uclamss_1429_1903 ark:/21198/zz002dcskw
Language
No linguistic content
Subject
Saint Francis Dam Failure, Calif., 1928 Governmental investigations--California Civil engineers--California--San Francisquito Canyon Geologists--California--San Francisquito Canyon
Source
Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection OpenUCLA Collections
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