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This early 1980’s color film, written and directed by Richard J. Soltys, traces the history of the Colorado River Aqueduct (CRA), a 242 mile water conveyance in Southern California, operated by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (TRT 17:21).
A hand turns on a faucet. Montage: Running water from a showerhead. A sprinkler sprays plants. A bathing baby and children in a swimming pool (0:08). The Colorado Aqueduct with mountains in the background. Montage: Rushing water, pipelines, aerial views, treatment facilities (0:54). Montage continues with an overlay of running water from a faucet. Office buildings and crowds of people (1:25). Titles: “The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Presents” and “The Story of the Colorado River Aqueduct” over rushing water (1:59). Aerial photography of Los Angeles and Long Beach shows urban and residential zones, the Pacific Ocean coastline (2:14). Still images: A man on horseback. A crowd gathered as water arrived in Sylmar in the San Fernando Valley circa 1913. Early 1920’s automobiles (2:52). Colorized postcard images of Los Angeles: A spandrel arch bridge, a streetcar marked “Parlor Car,” oil derricks, flower vendors, a beach scene, women outside City Hall, a small building, “San Marino Manor,” the Burbank Fire Department, Long Beach (3:19). A bright light transitions back to modern color footage of arid mountain ranges (4:00). California Barrel Cactus. A rattlesnake in closeup. Lens flares (4:45). 1930’s stills: A surveyor in silhouette, men in boats, theodolites (5:08). Black and white footage: Trucks on the move, pouring cement foundations, scaffolding for the Parker Dam (5:42). Lake Havasu and a pumping station. Pipelines. Walking through a concrete canal. Workers in a tunnel (6:20). Blasting crews building Hoover Dam. Inside a hydroelectric plant. Generators. Mount San Jacinto. An excavator and crew (7:03). A railcar’s POV inside a tunnel. Men swing pickaxes on either side. Montage of dam construction (7:59). The Lake Mathews terminal storage reservoir and machines tilling the soil circa 1931 (8:39). Mountains, trees, and springs in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming and Colorado (8:52). A dam towers above the camera, holding back water. Parker Dam and Lake Havasu from overhead. Pipelines run uphill (9:13). Gene Wash Reservoir. The Gene pumping plant. Copper Basin (10:14). Aerial and roadside views of open aqueducts. A patrolman driving. Powerlines (10:44). Iron Mountain pumping plant (11:30). Eagle Mountain pumping plant (11:56). Hinds pumping plant. Water flows downhill (12:17). Cars on a freeway near Palm Springs. Mount San Jacinto. An underground distribution tunnel (12:31). Lake Mathews terminal reservoir. Flowing water with maps of distribution lines and the state of California overlaid (13:01). A man on a telephone inside a MWD control station. A printout shows July production figures for the Robert B. Diemer Water Treatment Plant, also the Jensen, Mills, Skinner, and Weymouth plants (13:51). A water filtration plant in closeup and wide views. A chemist in a laboratory. Water spins in a beaker. Another chemist looks through magnifying glass, checking for impurities (14:08). A montage of scenes along the Colorado River Aqueduct (14:40). Construction cranes in downtown Los Angeles. A young boy with a yellow bike stands at a lookout point. A ferry on the Marietta line (15:27). Montage: A suspension railcar passes above a fairground, residential homes, the entrance to Disneyland, LA traffic, Sailboats, Glendale, the Rose Parade, a night skyline, beaches (15:39). Filtered water (16:15). A scenic overlook. End titles over an aqueduct sunset (16:40).
The Colorado River Aqueduct was originally conceived by William Mulholland and designed by Chief Engineer Frank E. Weymouth. It was built during the Great Depression with support from public works programs. 30,000 people were employed by the project. The average annual throughput of the system is 1,200,000 acre-ft.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFilm.com