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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY 277

referred to was gigantic in its scope. A branch line from the Southern
Pacific Railroad had to be built from Mojave up to the proposed line of
the aqueduct to connect with the Owens River Valley. Hundreds of miles
of road, pipe line, power transmission line and telegraph and telephone
lines had to be built. Fifty-seven camps had to be established along the
line, and all their facilities and equipment provided and installed. Pro-
vision had to be made for the vast quantities of cement needed for lining
conduits and tunnels, and for this purpose the city bought thousands of
acres of land in the Tehachapi Mountains covering the necessary deposits
of limestone, clay, etc., and built a cement mill with a capacity of 1,000
barrels a day. Large areas of land had to be negotiated for and bought for
the protection of water rights and reservoir sites, and the land so bought
aggregated some 135,000 acres.
After general construction started in October, 1908, it was found
that in nearly all features of the work the rate of progress was greater and
the cost less than the engineers' estimates. Naturally, there were setbacks
and delays such as are inevitable in all large works, but notwithstanding
these, water was turned through the full length of the aqueduct and
delivered at San Fernando on November 5, 1913, where its advent was
hailed by a great outpouring of some 30,000 citizens who congregated to
welcome the flood which insured the life of Los Angeles as a great city of
the future. _As it·gushed from the mouth of the outlet, the chief engineer,
William Mulholland, was called upon for an. appropriate address to the
assembled citizens. The address consisted of the remark, "There it is,
take it."
A fitting finish to a work well conceived and successfully accomplished.
When we speak of the aqueduct being completed and accepted by the
city when its flow was delivered to a point at the head of the San Fernando
Valley, it inust be explained that this was considered a finishing of the
aqueduct proper and the further connection to the existing city distributing
system was apart from the building of the aqueduct itself.
As a consequence of the bringing of water to the city from Owens
River Valley, and of hardly less importance than the water itself are the
opportunities made available for electrical power development. In the fall
of the aqueduct at various points on its southward course there is available
for such power a total gross fall of over 2,000 feet. The general plans
for the development of this power were recognized throughout the con-
struction of the aqueduct and provision made to avoid duplication of work,
and in September, 1909, the Bureau of Aqueduct Power was created as a
part of the organization of the Department of Public Works. A consulting
board of three eminent engineers was appointed to pass on the plans, to
investigate all the power possibilities, and to advise as to the best methods
of maximum development.
As a start for carrying out the power plans, a $3,500,000 issue of
power bonds was authorized at election in April, 1910. But this bond issue
was not available until two years later because of court proceedings brought
to test their validity. Meantime it was realized that this first bond issue
would serve only to build the initial plant for the development of a small
proportion of the possible power, and if the greatest benefit was to be
obtained power developed by the city must be distributed by the city.