water systems are integral to a city's design  without water human life is unsustainable no  

matter how advanced the city society is but  with how developed modern america has become  

a sizable population center can go up without  a nearby water source as american ingenuity  

can manually construct the source such  is the tale of the los angeles aqueduct  

an engineering marvel of the early 20th century  second only to the panama canal today it supplies  

the city with an average of 29 of its water even  over a century after its construction today we  

discover the los angeles aqueduct i'm your host  ryan socash and you're watching it's history

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to get to the story of the aqueduct we first  need to discuss the history of los angeles  

the region's first inhabitants were indigenous  tribes hunter-gatherers dating back to 8000 bce  

europeans did not arrive in the area until  1542 with the arrival of portuguese sailor  

juan rodriguez cabrillo after his initial  exploration over 200 years passed before the next  

notable european arrived gaspar di potola portola  established a spanish outpost in the area by 1781  

as more arrivals came in from europe and nearby  native tribes the settlement's governor gave it a  

new name thus was the birth of los angeles by the  time mexico declared independence from spain all  

of california had fallen under control of mexico  however 27 years later the united states annexed  

california just around the time its settlement  discovered gold in the sacramento valley as the  

49ers rushed to the area to take advantage of the  gold los angeles flourished into a much larger  

city come 1881 the south pacific railroad extended  to los angeles connecting it with the rest of the  

country with that the city exploded in growth  with people all across the country flocking to  

the area to pick up land in the sunshine state not  to mention that around this time the orange groves  

began to take on a much larger shape though an  influx of population and expanding fruit industry  

have something in common they both need more  water than the area supply allowed for the time  

before the city's significant burst of expansion  its water supply generally came from the massive  

los angeles river watershed which covered nearly  50 miles and provided plenty of water for the city  

and all of the smaller settlements along its banks  los angeles had a brick reservoir constructed to  

store water from the zanha madre or mother  ditch a man-made river created entirely by  

community laborers within a month in 1871 to go  out to houses along populated streets but with its  

explosive growth this water supply suddenly  became insufficient especially considering  

california's iconic orange industry with the  rising need for water breaking out across the city  

los angeles needed to form a solution especially  with a drought in the early 20th century that only  

exacerbated the problem at the turn of the century  the city's water lay in the hands of the los  

angeles city water company but by 1902 the city's  municipal government bought out the company its  

superintendent william mulholland remained in his  position after the acquisition taking the reins  

of the newly formed los angeles department of  water and power with his conglomerate mulholland  

received authorization from the board of water  commissioners to find new water sources for the  

city in 1904. he assembled a team of engineers and  people who knew the area including former mayor  

fred eaton as they would know what sources were  plausible and readily available they eventually  

discovered the owens valley region on the eastern  side of the sierra nevada mountain range around  

200 miles away from the city the owens river was  large enough to provide los angeles with all the  

water it needed but owens valley was a populated  region they had their own designs for the river  

seeking funding from the bureau of reclamation to  make a public irrigation system with los angeles  

much more extensive plans mulholland and eaton  stopped the irrigation project taking the land  

and water rights they needed to realize their  goals but this was not without extensive bribery  

deception and political contacts planning the  route from the owens river directly to the san  

fernando valley the duo and their backers bought  up all the land needed to make the aqueduct they  

all stood to gain untold profits from it and all  were very eager to invest the 1906 construction  

bond overwhelmingly passed which came in at 1.5  million dollars or around 48 million dollars today  

the grand scale of the plan caught the eye of  president theodore roosevelt who approved of its  

ambitions as a prime example of his ideal advanced  america with another bomb passed in 1907 this one  

set at 23 million or a staggering 735 million  dollars today construction began in october with  

an initial team of 4 000 workers the proportion  of the task became apparent the first and most  

challenging part of the project was its great deal  of tunneling with 142 tunnels totaling 43 miles  

the longest being the elizabeth tunnel at 5 miles  tunneling took up the majority of construction  

starting with the south portal on october the 5th  and the north portal following on november the 1st  

the workers tunneled entirely by hand as  they installed machinery to lighten the  

labor considering the task ahead only the most  advanced technologies of the time would do among  

those technologies were four 500 foot per minute  two-stage air compressors a track of 36 pound  

rails for operating electric locomotives and the  caterpillar tractor which cemented its name in  

history by performing exceptionally well in the  construction of the tunnels hauling timber in  

and excavating material out with the aid of these  tractors the elizabeth tunnel excavation reached  

a record speed for hard rock tunnel driving at 604  feet in one month extracted materials went to five  

different quarries acquired by the city which  distributed the millions of tons of displaced  

limestone among the five perhaps this excavation's  most significant advancement was employing the  

use of dynamite and drills both saw extensive  use throughout the industrial revolution but  

this project was one of the largest thanks to  these tools the north and south portals raced  

to their meeting point to join up and complete  the elizabeth tunnel with speeds like this the  

construction team made progress at unprecedented  rates while the board of engineers estimated that  

the job would take five years to complete the  workers achieved their deadline 20 months earlier  

than expected installation of the tunnel lining  began in 1911 starting at the center and working  

outwards in both directions steel i-beams  replaced the structural timbers which received  

concrete surroundings strengthening the already  strong steel now this aqueduct works entirely by  

gravity delivering water from the owens river  to the city through its tunnel and open canals  

its length is an astonishing 215 miles 24 of which  are opened online canals which did not have any  

material between the water and the soil 37 miles  are open canal that do have a lining and then you  

have another 97 miles of covered conduit of course  there are the 43 miles of tunnel and 12 miles of  

steel siphons at one point there were also 120  miles of railroad track two hydraulic plants  

three cement plants 170 miles of power lines 240  miles of telephone lines and 500 miles of road  

after five years of excavation and construction a  dedication ceremony conveyed on november the 5th  

1913 to celebrate the completion of the world's  longest aqueduct william mulholland stepped up to  

address the crowd and sealed off the ceremony by  declaring there it is take it and it certainly was  

a desirable acquisition for the city it was not  only the longest aqueduct in the world at the time  

but it was also the world's largest single  water project it supplied enough water to  

sustain millions despite the city's population  not even being a third of a million in 1913  

because of that water supply los angeles could  afford to grow exponentially in the coming years  

though all was not well in the area around los  angeles now that the vast majority of the owens  

river flowed into the los angeles aqueduct the  owens lake which was the original endpoint of  

the river began to seriously feel the effect by  1924 the lake was drying up to dangerous extremes  

farmers in the area took the issue to mall holland  and after many complaints bombarded his office  

acquisition from these farmers the owens river  water mostly fell back into the city's hands and  

now that the city technically owned the water  they diverted the water back into the aqueduct  

abusing the loophole of who owns the water source  the region's farmers did not agree with the city's  

legal shenanigans protesters appeared all around  the affected areas trying to resurrect the now  

dried out owens lake some actually took to bombing  parts of the aqueduct when the city did not answer  

their frustrations with these assaults on the  aqueduct escalating to a conflict the disputes  

gained the moniker the water wars but believe it  or not the protesters were not responsible for the  

greatest tragedy the aqueduct faced in 1928 the  saint francis dam in northern los angeles county  

had finally succumbed to a lack of support  the dam burst flooding towns in the area with  

billions of gallons of water killing an estimated  431 residents in its 100 foot high wall of water  

an investigation returned with no discovered foul  play aside from the misplacement of the dam itself  

though courts cleared mulholland of charges  the flood destroyed his reputation forcing  

his resignation now that ninety percent of  the water of the owens river entered the los  

angeles aqueduct and the area only continued  growing another problem for the city arose  

the water supply needed to continue expansion  beginning in 1930 with a vote among los angeles  

citizens the extension to the los angeles aqueduct  underwent construction throughout the 1930s to  

extend the water supply to the northern mono basin  and with the relatively uneventful construction  

completed in 1940 the aqueducts extension had  a 400 cubic feet per second capacity however it  

could only ever handle 123 cubic feet per second  due to the oldest part of the system but with  

other sections getting extensions in 1970 the  city could finally utilize its total capacity  

which unfortunately brought water wars up to the  mono basin the fish habitat there took a severe  

blow as well as the water level of mono lake  and the region's air quality the residents of  

mono basin bombarded the city's water organization  now the los angeles department of water and power  

with a flurry of lawsuits these suits resulted in  fishery protections with new streamflow minimums  

and a new minimum for mono lakes water level  however this was not sufficient either by 1956  

the water the city legally had access to had  become too little for the new scale that now  

was and the water rights board made it perfectly  clear that they would not tolerate any other  

exploitation of loopholes with no other options  they took to designing yet another aqueduct  

the second los angeles aqueducts construction  began in 1965 and in total cost 89 million or  

794 million dollars today completed in 1970 and  adding another 137 miles to the water system  

of which 64 were concrete conduit 69 were steel  pipes and four miles had the status of other the  

second aqueduct added enough water for the total  export to arrive at 450 000 acre feet per year and  

for yet a third time the water drawn out of the  system brought the fury of los angeles neighbors  

environmental consequences just like the previous  ones afflicted the mono basin in the owens valley  

by 1974 leading to yet another flood of lawsuits  the so-called water wars continue to this day  

the failure of saint francis dam has not  been forgotten and these matters often  

overshadow the benefits and accomplishment of  one of the world's most amazing water systems  

the fact of the matter is that los angeles once  got 70 percent of its water from the aqueducts and  

even today the city imports over 50 of its water  from the newer colorado river aqueduct the city  

could not do without its original system but with  water leaks and evaporation taking their toll the  

problems ahead are much larger in scale today  than they were in the past and it's up to the  

people of los angeles to arrive at a solution  so thanks for watching this episode everyone  

check out my california history playlist hit that  subscribe button this is ryan socash signing off