E71 El Desastre de la Presa de St. Francis

The St. Francis Dam, or the San Francisquito Dam, was a concrete gravity dam located in San Francisquito Canyon in northern Los Angeles County, California, United States, that was built between 1924 and 1926. The dam failed catastrophically in 1928, killing at least 431 people in the subsequent flood, in what is considered to have been one of the worst American civil engineering disasters of the 20th century and the third-greatest loss of life in California history.

The dam was built to serve the growing water needs of the city of Los Angeles, creating a large regulating and storage reservoir that was an integral part of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. It was located in San Francisquito Canyon, about 40 miles (64 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

However, a defective soil foundation and design flaws led to the dam's collapse just two years after its completion. Its failure ended the career of William Mulholland, the general manager and chief engineer of the Bureau of Water Works and Supply (now the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power)

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