Ancient Aqueducts

To achieve a consistent, shallow slope to move the water in a continuous flow, the
Romans lay underground pipes and constructed siphons throughout the landscape.
Workers dug winding channels underground and created networks of water pipes to
carry water from the source lake or basin into Rome. The pipes were typically built in
concrete, but were sometimes made of lead when the government provided enough
cash (lead was very expensive in 300 B.C.). When the pipes had to span a valley, they
built a siphon underground: a vast dip in the land that caused the water to drop so
quickly it had enough momentum to make it uphill. Siphons are part of the
mechanism that makes toilets flush, too (see How Toilets Work).

An aqueduct.

The problem with siphons, though, was the cost: Siphons really needed lead pipes to
work effectively, since the water had to pick up speed. This led to the use of the
features most of us have come to associate with Roman aqueducts: the arches. When
siphons were impractical, which was often, arches were constructed to span the
valley. The pipes ran along the tops of the arches.

At certain points along the route, sedimentation tanks removed impurities from the
water. In other sections, access points were carved into the system so maintenance
workers could access the pipes. One way the engineers facilitated maintenance was by
running two pipes alongside each other and diverting water between the two so men
could get inside one pipe at a time.
Several of the 11 aqueducts of ancient Rome, constructed between 312 B.C. and 226
A.D., carried water all the way from Tivoli, about 43 miles (70 km) away [source:
Antiquities]. The longest of the aqueducts, Anio Novus, was nearly 60 miles (97 km)
in length [source: InfoRoma].

When ancient Rome crumbled, the aqueducts went with it. By the time the Goths
invaded in 537 A.D., the water system had been seriously cut back, no longer required
by a population that was shrinking every year. The Goths finished the system off,
destroying all the remaining aqueducts. But during the period of the European
Renaissance, Rome started to rebuild the aqueducts to supply water to all the new
fountains in the city. By the 1950s, Rome had reconstructed eight aqueducts, which
stand to this day [source: Antiquities].

At its height, Rome's system of aqueducts supplied each member of the populace with
more than 265 gallons (1,000 liters) of water per day. That's more than many modern
water systems can deliver [source: InfoRoma].

The aqueducts in Los Angeles are nearly as impressive as those of ancient Rome
(credit must be given for constructing 60 miles of aqueduct without modern drilling
equipment). In Los Angeles, like in Rome, the event that precipitated the construction
of the first aqueduct was rapid growth. In the early 1900s, the population exploded so
quickly, that the local water supply could no longer meet demand. On the next page,
we'll see how the L.A. aqueducts replicated the water-delivery system of ancient
Rome.

Modern Aqueducts
In 1904, the inadequacy of the Los Angeles River as a water supply for the growing
city's 175,000 people came to a head. For 10 straight days that summer, water
consumption in Los Angeles exceeded river capacity by more than 4 million gallons
(about 15,141,647 liters). Finding an alternative water source became a top priority,
and with an abundance of water just outside the city, aqueducts proved to be the
answer.
 Topical Press Agency/Getty Images
Bert Dingley drives his car along a section of the L.A. aqueduct in
1914. The massive pipes diverted water into the city.

Specifically, the water engineers in L.A. settled on the Owens River Valley, due to
several main factors. First, Owens Lake received a tremendous amount of snow runoff
from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, to the point of overflowing. Second, lava from a
volcanic eruption had blocked the lake's tributary, meaning it could no longer release
its water into the river system. All of that water, to the people tasked with finding
more water for L.A., was going to waste. And third, before that volcanic eruption, the
Owens water had flowed almost directly into L.A.

So L.A. went about building a 226-mile (364-km) aqueduct to carry water from
Owens Valley into the city [source: LADWP]. The methods developed in ancient
Rome stood the test of time, and the L.A. engineers constructed underground pipes
and siphons to deliver water by way of gravity. Some of the pipes are big enough to
accommodate a car. The biggest siphon in the system, which spans Jawbone Canyon
with more than 8,000 feet (2,400 meters) of steel pipe weighing more than 3,200 tons,
drops water 850 feet (260 meters) to the canyon floor to create the pressure required
for it to travel back up the canyon [source: LADWP].
 David McNew/Getty Images
The east branch of the California Aqueduct cascades down
mountainsides and uses gravity to pipe water into the city.

But Los Angeles' growth continued, due in part to the tremendous amount of water
available to support the city, and by the early '20s, demand once again exceeded
supply. In 1923, just 10 years after the Owens Valley aqueduct was completed,
Owens Valley was running dry.

Los Angeles' insatiable need for water took its toll on Owens Valley. Once the lake
started to dry up, depleting the fish supply for the region, L.A. went after the
groundwater. Despite widespread protest in the valley, culminating in violence in
1924, when residents used dynamite to destroy key points along the aqueduct, the city
of L.A. continued to buy up land in the valley to ensure its access to the water.
Agriculture in the area suffered and Owens Valley faced a long period of decline.

In 1970, around the same time that L.A. completed its second aqueduct, this one
carrying water from Haiwee Reservoir just south of Owens, conservationists were
starting to gain ground in the United States. A series of lawsuits resulted in several
agreements between Owens Valley and Los Angeles that have helped Owens Valley
to rebuild over time. Money supplied by L.A. has built fisheries, reservoirs,
conservation grounds, wildlife preserves and groundwater management systems in the
valley, which have brought it back to life, for the most part. And the aqueducts are
now a source of green power, too, supporting several hydroelectric dams.

Despite the controversy that came to surround the Los Angeles aqueducts, they are
nonetheless a feat of engineering as amazing as those in ancient Rome. Relying
entirely on gravity, the two L.A. aqueducts today carry about 430 million gallons
(1,627.7 megaliters) of water over hundreds of miles into Los Angeles every day.
That should keep the city hydrated for a little while.

For more information on aqueducts and related topics, go to the links on the next
page.