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Water to the Angels    by Les Standiford Amazon.com order for
Water to the Angels
by Les Standiford
Order:  USA  Can
Ecco, 2015 (2015)
Hardcover, e-Book
* * *   Reviewed by Bob Walch

This is the remarkable story of William Mulholland, his monumental aqueduct and how this manmade waterway was responsible for the rise of Los Angeles.

Thanks to Mulholland and the city leaders of Los Angeles who had the foresight to realize in the early 1900s that a water crisis would impede the city's growth, the city embarked on an ambitious plan to make sure water would be available for future generations.

This daring plan, which was to obtain the rights to the water and then transport it from the slopes of the Eastern Sierra Mountains and the Owens Valley to Los Angeles, was a remarkable engineering feat. In fact, it would ultimately be spoken of in the same breath as the construction of the Panama Canal.

Standiford explains how Mulholland overcame numerous obstacles to make this project a reality and how this self-taught engineer oversaw the construction of the waterway through some of the most challenging terrain in the state.

Well illustrated with vintage black and white photos, Water to the Angels chronicles the story of the Los Angeles aqueduct which stretches over 200 miles, and presents the remarkable personalities that made this daring project a reality.

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