Undertaken to provide water to the San Joaquin Valley and the city of San Francisco, the Hetch Hetchy Project called for the construction of the Hetch Hetchy Dam on the Tuolumne River in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. It also called for the construction of several smaller dams and power houses, the laying of 150 miles of pipeline to reservoirs in San Francisco and the building of a twenty five mile long tunnel through the coast range. The Hetch Hetchy Dam was completed in 1923 though the total project took longer. Water from the Tuolumne River first reached San Francisco in 1934.
In 1938, the Dam’s height was extended 86 feet to 312 feet. It was officially named the O’Shaughnessy Dam in honor of Michael O’Shaughnessy, San Francisco’s Chief Engineer who oversaw the building of the Dam. No minor undertaking, the Hetch Hetchy Project cost nearly 100 million dollars. Most costly were the eighty-nine lives that were lost due to construction accidents.
Height of the construction tower 350 feet.
Upstream view of the dam.
Water rushes down the face of the dam.
Downstream view of the dam.
....All photos of the dam taken early 1920's....
