Side view of a section of the St. Francis Dam, nicknamed "The Tombstone", after the dam collapsed on March 12, 1928. The resulting flood killed over 400 people, and was considered one of the worst civil engineering failures in American history. The dam collapse caused the second greatest loss of life in California history, second only to the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. The St. Francis dam was built between 1924 and 1926 in St. Francisquito Canyon, near present-day Santa Clarita. William Mulholland was the engineer behind the dam's construction, and the dam failed just hours after he had personally given it a safety inspection, effectively ending his career.
Photo taken after the March 12, 1928 collapse of the Saint Francis Dam; this disastrous civil engineering failure cost over 600 lives in the resulting flood and brought the end of William Mulholland's career as the chief engineer of the Los Angeles Bureau of Water Works and Supply.
Image of the St. Francis Dam after its March 12, 1928 collapse. The resulting flood killed over 400 people, and was considered one of the worst civil engineering failures in American history. The dam collapse caused the second greatest loss of life in California history, second only to the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. The St. Francis dam was built between 1924 and 1926 in St. Francisquito Canyon, near present-day Santa Clarita. William Mulholland was the engineer behind the dam's construction. The dam failed just hours after he had personally given it a safety inspection, effectively ending his career.
