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 metal fence posts flattened to the ground in the foreground with an electrical substation and [water ?] tower in the background and plant flood debris on the ground following the failure of the Saint Francis Dam and resulting torrential flood. A man is visible in the left middle ground and an automobile is at the foot of the tower. Text from negative sleeve: Saint Francis Dam
Type
image
Format
b&w nitrate negative
Identifier
uclamss_1429_1912 ark:/21198/zz002dcswj
Language
No linguistic content
Subject
Saint Francis Dam Failure, Calif., 1928 Flood damage--California--Santa Clara River Valley
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