Essay On St Francis Dam

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St. Francis Dam was a 1924 project that was supposed to provide water for the people of California. It was engineered by William Mulholland. The project, however, ended up being a disaster as it killed 600 people. The dam collapsed due to poor engineering. From this incidence, we learn that we should give competent individuals responsibilities to execute projects. We also learn that we should not assume any slight sign of an impending danger.
Introduction
The St. Francis Dam was a concrete gravity dam. It was curved in shape. It was erected so as to provide storage and to regulate water. The dam was located along San Francis Quito canyon, 64 kilometres to the northwest of Los Angeles, California and 16 kilometres to the north of Santa Clarita. The dam was built from 1924 to 1926 by the Bureau of Water Works and Supply, currently known as Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. William Mulholland was the General Manager and the Chief Engineer of the entire project. On 12th march 1928, the dam failed. It flooded and killed 600 people. The catastrophe went down as one of the tragic civil engineering disasters in America. It marked the end of William Mulholland’s career as an Engineer. This research will give an insight look into the possible causes of the dam’s failure.
Data collection
In this research, I used both primary and secondary data as my sources of information. For primary data, I interviewed some relatives of people who, at one time, resided somewhere near San Francisquito Canyon which is close to the site. I wanted to find out if they knew any history about the St. Francis Dam’s catastrophic collapse. I noted some of their theories and opinions on a notebook as a way of data collection. I also visited the site on a tou...

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...uld never be taken for granted. Just like the cracks and leakages on the walls of St. Francis dam were assumed and resulted to a catastrophic collapse, slight signs can be signals of great impending danger.
To conclude, St. Francis dam was a water storage project that ended up being a disaster. It was engineered by William Mulholland who many people say was a great man with great sight and drive. Unfortunately, in my opinion, he solely went in his own and did not have enough trust in his fellow engineers. I also think he took lightly the signs that showed the dam was not strong enough to hold the pressure of water. This led to the collapse of the dam’s walls killing 600 people. From this incidence, we learn that we should to take other people’s opinions carefully while executing projects. We also learn that we should not assume any slight sign of an impending danger.

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