Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles

In 1907, Irish immigrant William Mulholland conceived and built one of the greatest civil engineering feats in history: the Los Angeles aqueduct. The project carried water 223 miles from the Sierra Nevada mountains to Los Angeles, enabling the small desert city to grow into a modern global metropolis. Les Standiford's account draws on new research to document Mulholland and his six-year, $23 million project. The aqueduct transformed a region, a state, and a nation at the dawn of the twentieth century. The book examines themes of Gilded Age ambition, hubris, greed, and the vision of one determined individual. At a time when water's importance is increasingly recognized, this work brings into focus the vigor of a fabled era, the scale of a major construction project, and a past that offers insights for the future. The book includes eight pages of photographs.