William Mulholland
"There it is. Take it."
--
William Mulholland, 1913
William
Mulholland (1855-1935) was born in
A
natural leader, Mulholland, known affectionately as "The Chief,"
was entrusted with building a 233-mile aqueduct, the world’s
longest at the time, to bring water from the Owens River north of Los Angeles
to the San Fernando Valley, where developers awaited conversion of dry land
into farms and housing tracts. Some called the project "the rape of
the
Fifteen
years later, on March 12, 1928, Mulholland’s career took a tragic turn
when the St. Francis Dam, one of several dams built to increase storage of
Owens River water, collapsed, sending 12 billion gallons of water into the
Santa Clara Valley, north of Los Angeles. The flood claimed over 400 lives. The
Coroner's Jury that investigated the failure of the St. Francis Dam reached
three conclusions: 1) that the underlying rock structure was of poor quality
and the design of the dam was not suited to the inferior foundation; 2) that
there was an error in engineering judgment in determining the character of the
foundation of the dam site and in deciding the best type of dam to build there;
and 3) that there was an error in regard to fundamental policy related to
public safety, in that excessive responsibility was vested in one person and no
independent experts were authorized to check on his work. In essence, the Jury
found that Mulholland, although not criminally liable for the deaths, did make
serious errors. "The Chief" took full responsibility, saying:
"If there is an error of human judgment, I am the human." Several
months later he retired. His final years were lived in the shadow of the
St. Francis Dam collapse.
Mulholland
remains a legendary and controversial figure in Southern California history,
the man credited by many with making modern
--
Contributed by Albert Greenstein, 1999