Six geologists and/or civil engineers standing in front of flood debris following the flood resulting from the failure of the Saint Francis Dam, San Francisquito Canyon (Calif.), 1928
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. The collapse of the Saint Francis Dam prompted the creation of over a dozen separate investigations into the cause of failure. Almost all of these comprised investigative panels of prominent engineers and geologists. Six men standing in front of flood debris composed of branches following the flood resulting from the failure of the Saint Francis Dam. The men are probably engineers and/or geologists. The man in the center may be H. A. Van Norman, assistant chief engineer of the water bureau. Text from negative sleeve: Saint Francis Dam
Type
Image
Format
b&w nitrate negative
Identifier
uclamss_1429_1921 ark:/21198/zz002dct6p
Language
No linguistic content
Subject
Governmental investigations--California Saint Francis Dam Failure, Calif., 1928 Geologists--California--San Francisquito Canyon Civil engineers--California--San Francisquito Canyon Van Norman, H. A. (Harvey Arthur), 1878-1954
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