William Mulholland was a ditch digger turned emperor, an Irish immigrant who presided over the transformation of Los Angeles from a dusty backwater settlement to the tail that wags the golden bear. Monterey Bay had been the first port of major import in California, and its namesake city was its first capital. San Francisco and Sacramento grew up as a result of the Gold Rush; the former was a debarkation point for the gold fields of the western Sierra, and the latter?at the crotch of the gold-bearing American River and the bay-connected Sacramento?thrived first on the comings and goings of those bound for golden glory, then as the state capital, profiting from the goings-on of governing what became the most populous state in the union. Los Angeles, though" Everybody knew that was nowhere.
The Owens River in 2008. Its parched valley was once an agricultural idyll. Its purloined waters filled the Saint Francis Reservoir via the Los Angeles Aqueduct.
The semi-arid strip trapped between the Transverse Ranges and the Pacific was barely livable, with only the Los Angeles River to keep its thirst slaked. Its harbor, now one of the primary economic engines of California, was too shallow for any serious shipping without dredging. Because of its lack of habitable area owing to a paucity of fresh water, the City of Angels seemed to be doomed to its status as a town of little consequence. As the chief engineer of the Bureau of Water Works and Supply, Mulholland, with the aid ...