WATER

Hoover Dam - 2016

Glen Canyon Dam - Arizona

Glen Canyon Dam - Arizona

The Los Angeles Aqueduct

Hoover Dam - Nevada / Arizona

New Croton Dam - New York

Matilija Dam - California

Mono Lake - California

Mono Lake has a long and complex history surrounding water rights and the city of Los Angeles. In the 1940s, the city began diverting water from the Mono Lake tributary streams to meet the growing water demands of its rapidly expanding population. This caused the lake's level to drop dramatically, altering its delicate ecosystem and leading to a lawsuit by environmental groups and concerned citizens.

The legal battle went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of Mono Lake and ordered the city to reduce its diversions and restore a more natural flow to the lake. The Mono Lake case set a precedent for the protection of ecosystems and natural resources in the face of growing water demands and helped establish the principle that water must be managed sustainably and in a manner that protects the environment.

Mile Rock Tunnel Outfall - California

Mile Rock Tunnel - California

Strawberry Creek - Berkeley CA

Puglas Water Temple - California

San Francisco built Pulgas Water Temple as a monument to the engineering marvel that brought Hetch Hetchy water more than 160 miles across California from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Bay Area. The Hetch Hetchy Project took 24 years to build through the Great Depression at a cost of $102 million.

On October 28, 1934, the roar of Hetch Hetchy mountain water greeted everyone gathered at Pulgas Water Temple to celebrate its arrival. With vivid memories of the fire that had raged unchecked after the Great Earthquake of 1906, the city rejoiced in its new secure, plentiful supply of high quality drinking water. The frieze above the columns expresses the city’s joyful relief:

“I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people.”

Pulgas Water Temple was designed in the Beaux Arts style by William Merchant, a San Francisco architect trained by Bernard Maybeck. Merchant’s design featured fluted columns and Corinthian capitals to reflect the architecture of ancient Greeks and Romans, whose engineering methods were used to build the new water system. Artist and master stone carver Albert Bernasconi brought Merchant’s drawings to life.

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