William Mulholland 1855-1935

 

Born in Belfast but raised in Dublin, William Mulholland emigrated to New York at the age of fifteen, spending some years at sea before taking up a job as a ditch digger in the developing city of Los Angeles in the late 1870s. Night classes allowed him to add to his knowledge, and within a short time he was working as a designer and supervisor of hydraulic systems for the city, being appointed its chief engineer at the age of forty and gaining nationwide notice for his innovative sluicing concept of dam construction at the Silver Lake reservoir, completed in 1906. For the next twenty years he worked on implementing a plan to provide a secure water supply to the fast-growing city, a vision that was reealised with the completion of the controversial Los Angeles Aqueduct that transported water from the Owens River in the Inyo Mountains 238 miles to the north. Although his career and reputation were badly affected by the collapse of the St. Francis Dam in 1928 with the loss of 500 lives, Mulholland's acceptance of reponsibility, resignation and pro-active investigation of the safety of other dams in the system meant that he con tinued to enjoy respect and regard among peers and public alike. He lived to the age of 87, honored in his last months for his early work on the 242-mile Colorado Aqueduct, dedicated in the year of his death and completed six years later. Mulholland Drive in Malibu is named for him.