Just before midnight on March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam collapsed, sending billions of gallons of water toward sleeping people downstream. Watch FLOOD IN THE DESERT Tue May 3 at 9/8c on American Experience | PBS → pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/flood-desert | American Experience | PBS

Yesterday marked the 90th anniversary of the 1928 St. Francis Dam Disaster, the second greatest disaster in California history. 400 lives, and possibly more were lost. At tonight's Santa Clarita Council Meeting, the following special video was presented. #SantaClaritaValley #SantaClarita #StFrancisDam #StFrancisDamDisaster | City of Santa Clarita Government

The St Francis Dam disaster of 1928 is considered the worst American civil engineering disaster of the 20th century William Mulholland, of which Mulholland Drive is named after, hastily oversaw the project. He ignored geologists warnings to not build the dam due to unstable foundations and went a step further by opting to use cheaper materials to get the job done quicker. Why? Because LA needed more water and fast. But this dam construction came right after building the first ever long distance

What's the truth behind this engineering disaster? 🤔 The St. Francis Dam collapsed due to its construction on an ancient landslide, which shifted under the dam's weight, combined with poor geological conditions and flaws in the dam's design, including a base too narrow for the raised height of the dam and an insufficient foundation that was eroded by water! #science #physics #engineering #geology #bridge #civilengineering #history #knowledge | Learning with Lyrics

Close to midnight in 1928, the St. Francis dam near Los Angeles suddenly collapsed —the largest man-made disaster in California history. Fifty years later, screenwriter Robert Towne would use its details and characters as the foundation for “Chinatown”, making Jack Nicholson and his cigarette one of Hollywoods biggest stars. Two decades after that, Dan Akroyd ushered me and few others into a secret back room at his L.A. House of Blues where I shared a different sort of cigarette with Jack Nichol