Concrete Avalanche

In 1928, Los Angeles was a booming metropolis built on a foundation of stolen water and untouchable engineering hubris. The man responsible for this miracle, William Mulholland, was a local hero. But just hours after he personally inspected his newest masterpiece, the St. Francis Dam, the massive concrete structure catastrophically shattered in the middle of the night. A terrifying wall of water rushed toward the Pacific, obliterating towns and killing over 400 people. This historical investigation uncovers the fatal flaws hidden deep within the concrete and the terrifying politics of the California water wars. It details how intense political pressure and blind faith in a self-taught engineer caused officials to ignore glaring geological warnings. The disaster effectively ended Mulholland's legendary career and changed the landscape of the American West overnight. Discover the gripping true story of the second deadliest disaster in California history. By analyzing the engineering miscalculations and the subsequent legal fallout, the book reveals how the collapse of the St. Francis Dam forced the birth of modern civil engineering accountability and strict safety regulations worldwide.