Crescenta Valley Flood Control - La Cañada Flintridge CA

City:: La Cañada Flintridge, CA
Site Type:: Infrastructure and Utilities, Sanitation and Water Disposal, Flood and Erosion Control
New Deal Agencies:: Federal & Military Operations, Work Relief Programs, Army Corps of Engineers, Works Progress Administration (WPA), Civil Works Administration (CWA)
Started:: 1934

Description

“Geographically, the Crescenta Valley extends eastward from the Los Angeles City communities of Sunland and Tujunga through a portion of the City of Glendale and the County territories of La Crescenta and Montrose to the incorporated city of La Cañada Flintridge…

After the disastrous flood of 1934, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Los Angeles County Flood Control District embarked upon major construction of dams, channels, debris basins and continued efforts to control erosion.” (https://www.villageprofile.com)

According to the Feb 1934 California Highway and Public Works magazine, “Several thousand C.W.A. relief workers were rushed to the flooded area to render aid to the population and salvage as much property as possible.”

A local source also told the project submitter in 2014 that he grew up in La Cañada Flintridge and described the flood and reconstruction efforts from his vantage at the bottom of the canyon. He remembers seeing and talking to the WPA workers as they built the storm drain leaning on their shovels. The pictures here are from the area in which that gentleman grew up, which drains into the Arroyo Seco, another massive New Deal project.