The difference between the canals of Phoenix, and the aqueducts of Los Angeles


Everyone knows that Phoenix, Arizona is in the desert. There's precious little water there, and in order for things to grow, and for people to live there, water has to be brought in. But most people have no idea that Los Angeles does exactly the same thing. It just looks different.

The canals of Phoenix are right out there, and have been since the first ones were dug by the Phoenix pioneers in the 1860s. The water comes from the Salt River, which flows from the northeast, starting as snowmelt in the mountains, is held back in dams, and then distributed all over the valley in canals. Yes, that's where your drinking water, and the water you use to water your plants, and everything else, comes from if you live in the Phoenix area. A tiny percentage comes from the Colorado River, too, and it also travels along in canals.

The water in and around Los Angeles isn't so visible. Instead of open canals, it runs through pipes, from aqueducts coming from the Owens Valley, and the Colorado River. The Owens River water arrived in 1913, and the Colorado River water started arriving after Hoover Dam was completed, in 1933.
Support Arizona history by becoming a patron on Patreon

Click here to become a Patron!
History Adventuring blog posts are shared there daily, also there's "then and now" photos, billboards, aerials, and super high-resolution photos of historic Phoenix, Arizona
I've lived in both Los Angeles and in Phoenix, and have been interested in their history for a long time. And yes, it's all about the water. Without water, those cities wouldn't exist. And it took some amazing engineering, and some "unreasonable optimism" to make it happen. It's been so successful that most people never give it a thought. And that's how it should be.



I've always loved the canals of Phoenix. I've ridden my bike along them, and walked my dog, more times that I can count. The banks of the canals have been open for public use since the first canals were built, and they still are. And remember that this is water that's coming IN, not water that's going out. The canals are not storm drains, or sewers. That's water from the Salt River there, and yes, there are fish in there. Don't worry, they clean it up before you brush your teeth with it!

I really can't show you the water coming into Los Angeles, it's as hidden away as the sewers. But it's there, and there is a constant battle to keep the reservoirs filled, and the water flowing, just like in Phoenix.


Image at the top of this post: the Arizona Canal in 2014, Phoenix, Arizona, with my wiener dog, Macintosh

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is ...
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the...
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me...
Read more