Catastrophe in California:
A Reappraisal of the St. Francis Dam Collapse

In March of 1928, the St. Francis Dam north of Los Angeles—designed by William Mulholland as a reservoir for the California Aqueduct—collapsed. The largest engineering disaster in California history is inextricably woven into the epic history of water in Los Angeles. In 2013, the centennial year of the California Aqueduct, ALOUD hosted a discussion of the St. Francis tragedy and its enduring catastrophic and cultural significance.