Access to this collection is generously supported by Arcadia funds. View of supplies and equipment being unloaded during the reconstruction effort following the failure of the Saint Francis Dam and resulting flood. Three automobiles are in the foreground with loaded trucks behind them. On the left a portable crane, in the form of a lifting tripod, is used to unload or position what looks like a utility pole next to a truck. In the days following the flood, the effort to restore power to the towns of the Santa Clara River Valley and surrounding areas was begun immediately. 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. Text from negative sleeve: Saint Francis Dam
Type
Image
Format
b&w nitrate negative
Identifier
uclamss_1429_1943 ark:/21198/zz002dctz2
Language
No linguistic content
Subject
Disaster relief--California--Santa Clara River Valley Saint Francis Dam Failure, Calif., 1928 Cranes, derricks, etc.--California--Santa Clara River Valley
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