William Mulholland

William Mulholland (September 11, 1855 – July 22, 1935) was an Irish American self-taught civil engineer who was responsible for building the infrastructure to provide a water supply that allowed Los Angeles to grow into the largest city in California. As the head of a predecessor to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Mulholland designed and supervised the building of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, a 233-mile-long (375 km) system to move water from Owens Valley to the San Fernando Valley. The creation and operation of the aqueduct led to the disputes known as the California water wars. In March 1928, Mulholland's career came to an end when the St. Francis Dam failed just over 12 hours after he and his assistant gave it a safety inspection.

Early life William Mulholland was born in Belfast, Ireland, part of the United Kingdom. His parents Hugh and Ellen Mulholland were Dubliners and they returned to the city a few years after William's birth. His younger brother, Hugh Jr., was born in 1856. At the time of Mulholland's birth, his father was working as a guard for the Royal Mail. In 1862, when William was seven years old, his mother died. Three years later, his father remarried. William was educated at O'Connell School by the Christian Brothers in Dublin. After having been beaten by his father for receiving bad marks in school, Mulholland ran off to sea. At 15, Mulholland was a member of the British Merchant Navy. He spent the next four years as a seaman on Gleniffer, making at least 19 Atlantic crossings to ports in North America and the Caribbean. In 1874, he disembarked in New York City and headed west to Michigan, where he worked a summer on a Great Lakes freighter and the winter in a lumber camp. After nearly losing a leg in a logging accident, he moved to Ohio, where he worked as a handyman. Mulholland reconnected with his brother Hugh, and in December 1876, they stowed away on a ship in New York bound for California. They were discovered in Panama, and were forced to leave the ship. They then walked over 47 miles through jungle to Balboa. Mulholland arrived in Los Angeles in 1877.

Initial career in Los Angeles After arriving in Los Angeles, which at the time had a population of about 9,000, Mulholland quickly decided to return to life at sea, as work was hard to find. On his way to the port at San Pedro to find a ship, he accepted a job digging a well. After a brief stint in Arizona, where he prospected for gold and worked on the Colorado River, he obtained a job from Frederick Eaton as Deputy Zanjero (water distributor) with the newly formed Los Angeles City Water Company (LACWC). In Alta California during the Spanish and Mexican administrations, water was delivered to Pueblo de Los Angeles in a large, open ditch, the Zanja Madre. The man who tended the ditch was known as a zanjero. In 1880, Mulholland oversaw the laying of the first iron water pipeline in Los Angeles. Mulholland left the employment of the LACWC briefly in 1884, but returned in mid-December. He left again in 1885 and worked for the Sespe Land and Water Company. As part of his compensation, he was granted 20 acres on Sespe Creek. In 1886, he returned to the LACWC, and in October became a naturalized American citizen. At the end of the year, he was made the superintendent of the LACWC. In 1898, the Los Angeles city government decided not to renew the contract with the LACWC. Four years later, the Los Angeles Water Department was established with Mulholland as its superintendent. In 1911, the department was renamed the Bureau of Water Works and Supply, with Mulholland named as its chief engineer. In 1937, two years after Mulholland's death, the Bureau of Water Works and Supply merged with the Bureau of Power and Light to form the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power; the agency continues to control, supply, and maintain all the city's domestic services.

Los Angeles Aqueduct

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