Name/Title
Print, PhotographicEntry/Object ID
2008.13.5Description
B & W digital scan of the ceremonial turning on of the LA Aqueduct at the Intake just north of Independence. Looking from downstream side of the intake north.
"With a small party of engineers and city dignitaries, Mulholland and his associates turned the wheels to open the water gates as Harvey Van Norman''s wife, Bessie, broke a bottle of champagne on the simple concrete structure that was to divert Owens River waters to the City of Los Angeles. Even today one is struck by the simplicity and undramatic aspect of the lonely weir whose purpose would animate such an epic struggle in the years ahead. One onlooker that day remarked that it seemed to him that "the source, the fountain of the great waterway should be marked with a towering arch or some other fitting monument." ---from William Mulholland, the Rise of Los Angeles, pg 231.
This photo was either taken by or from the collection of Edward Francis Leahey.Collection
Edward Francis Leahey Collection