Heavy Ground: William Mulholland and the St. Francis Dam Disaster

by Norris Hundley, Donald C. Jackson

Overview

Heavy Ground explores the social, political, and technological history of the St. Francis Dam Disaster in California, the worst civil engineering disaster in twentieth-century American History. Approximately 400 people died in March 1928, when the concrete gravity dam built by Los Angeles engineer William Mulholland suddenly and tragically collapsed, releasing over 12 billion gallons of water into the Santa Clara River Valley.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781948908894
Publisher:	University of Nevada Press
Publication date:	12/08/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	448
File size:	50 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Norris Hundley (1935–2013) was an author and leader in the history of the American West and in the nascent field of water history. He was a was long time member of the History Department at UCLA and served as president of both the Western History Association and the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association.
 
Donald C. Jackson is the Cornelia F. Hugel Professor of History at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. He has authored many books and articles on the history of dams and hydraulic engineering.
 
 

Table of Contents

CONTENTS
 
Preface 1
Prologue: “A Misty Haze over Everything” 5
Chapter 1: Mulholland: A Man and an Aqueduct 9
Chapter 2: Th e Dam: Site Selection and Design 37
Chapter 3: Th e Dam: Construction, Operation, Failure 81
Chapter 4: Disaster Unleashed 129
Chapter 5: Civic Responsibility and Reparations 201
Chapter 6: Th e Politics of Safety: Inquest and Investigations 233
Chapter 7: Dam Building after the Flood 311
Chapter 8: Postscript: William Mulholland 323

Appendix A: How Fast Could the Reservoir Have Been Lowered? 337
Appendix B: Was Failure Inevitable? 341

Acknowledgments 345
About the Authors 346

Notes 347
Index 425
 

Editorial Reviews

"Readers will find much to like in this carefully-crafted, exhaustively-researched, liberally-illustrated, and engagingly-written book... an important and welcome addition to the pantheon of scholarship on California Water History." -- Southern California Quarterly

Southern California Quarterly

"Well-researched, well-illustrated, and well-written. . . Summing Up: Highly recommended." -- CHOICE

CHOICE

"[Heavy Ground] does something unexpected. It opens a new perspective onto William Mulholland... [bringing him] to life in all his sharp-elbowed, stubborn glory, saddened and perplexed by the St. Francis Dam debacle yet prideful until the end." — Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Journal