This day 107 years – 5 November 1913 – William Mulholland declared, “There it is. Take it,” as water emerged from the Los Angeles Aqueduct for the first time.
Born in Belfast and educated by the Christian Brothers in Dublin, Mulholland supervised the building of the aqueduct. pic.twitter.com/dMVPBe1SIZ
— This Day in Irish History (@ThisDayIrish) November 5, 2020
Controversial, brilliant self-taught civil engineer and loose inspiration for the Hollis Mulwray character in river-siphoning classic Chinatown (1972).
According to historian William L. Kahrl :
The harshest judgement of Mulholland’s actions lay in the damage he had done to the principle of public water development. More than any other individual, William Mulholland, through the building of the aqueduct and the formation of the Metropolitan Water District, established the principle of public ownership of water indelibly on California’s history.
Oh.
Also responsible for the 2nd largest loss of life in California, by a later, inadequately designed dam.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Francis_Dam
+1 about the Francis Dam disaster. Mulholland could have saved many lives but for his arrogance. Also the aqueduct was rife with problems. It enraged locals so much it was regularly bombed. Much of the land was obtained in a ungentlemanly way.
He robbed the water from Owens river and was responsible for a dam that collapsed causing
devstation, in fact there are positive indications that the water rights taken away may have to
restored, with only 5% of the flow reinstated since 2006, perhaps we may see the Owens Làke
reinstated with almost the full river flow…. Mulholland has gone down in California’s history as
an environmental sabatuer