California Part 2Panama & Los Angeles

Nadya Dooley

5/2/11

The Los Angeles AquaductPart 1: Why it was constructed

Los Angeles had an extreme water shortage, no minerals and no resources

The population continued to expand, and the current water supply system was failing and drying up

LA found itself in a drought

The Los Angeles AquaductPart 2: Mr. William Mulholland

Mulholland started out as a worker, but in 1886 ended up as the superintendent of the LA water system

He set out in 1905 to build the LA aquaduct, using his engineering background to help him

He’d never finished grade school, but received an honorary degree

He became the highest public employee in LA

The Los Angeles AquaductPart 3: The Finished thing

The water was brought to Los Angeles from the Owens river (in the Owens valley)

In burning heat (110 degrees), one hundred thousand workers built it

It opened in 1913

The Owens valley

The Los Angeles AquaductPart 4: Complications & Resolutions

The population grew rapidly and everyone had tons of water

…Until Mulholland’s dam broke, and millions of gallons of water spilled out, flooding everything in its path

Mulholland retired, leaving the blueprints for his unbuilt ideas behind

Other people built his ideas, but now people started to realize that they were going to dry up all the lakes

LA began to conserve water on a scale like never before, leaving the lakes surviving

The Panama CanalPart 1: The Canal

After the US purchased the rights to build the Panama Canal, the Chagres river was dammed and a man made lake was built

After ten years of digging and building locks as big as the Eiffel Tower, whilst trying to stop landslides, the canal was finished

It opened officially in August 1914 The system was relatively simple: water

raised the boats up to the level of the next lock, until they reached the lake

The Panama CanalPart 2: Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt was the initiator of the construction of the Panama Canal

After McKinley was assasinated, he became the youngest president ever, at 42

His trip to Panama made him the first president ever to the US whilst in office

He also ran a huge sanitary program, where roads were paved, water pipes were made and new houses were built

The Panama CanalPart 3: Ferdinand de Lesseps

Ferdinand de Lesseps built the Suez Canal and tried to build the Panama Canal but failed

Hundreds of men died because of Yellow Fever and Malaria, which they believed came from the air, not from mosquitoes

France was funding Lesseps, but when he failed to construct the canal, it was the biggest financial loss in history up to then

The Panama CanalPart 4: John Stevens and George Goethals

John Stevens was the first person that Theodore Roosevelt put in charge of building the Panama Canal

He ordered wired nets to keep his men away from the mosquitoes and tons of medicine

He was a great success until he mysteriously quit, at which point Roosevelt appointed George Goethals

George Goethals successfully completed the canal