It was the 1920s. The city of Los Angeles needed outside supplies of water to sustain its growth. William Mulholland, the legendary engineer who spearheaded Los Angeles’s attempts to secure water, looked to the Colorado River as an ultimate source. Before Parker Dam was even completed in 1938, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (a consortium of cities that had been incorporated in 1928, at Mulholland’s behest) was implementing plans for what became the Colorado River Aqueduct. Designed by Chief Engineer Frank E. Weymouth, this megaproject would come to include 62…
