CaliforniaGreat Expectations

By: Kyle Pollitt

Water Source

Beginning in the 1890s California spent 40 years building an infrastructure that relied heavily on getting water and irrigating the entire state.

This task included building a 60 mile canal from the Colorado River to the Imperial Valley.

The canal ruptured, the Imperial Valley was flooded in 1905 and it took almost 2 years to repair the break.

Other large-scale water projects brought lawsuits and land feuds.

Construction

Roads, bridges, parks, Universities, buildings and plazas were built with beautiful vision and designed by imaginative architects.

San Diego’s original city planner and landscape architect, John Nolen, envisioned San Diego as the Naples of southern California.

As the population increased so did the sprawl of homes, banks, cars, churches and military bases.

The mega state of California could handle it – for a century.