LA River floods and changes course
After this flood, the river moves east to Vernon and then south to San Pedro. Water breaks through levees and inundates the lowlands. Residents recall the flood washing away houses, as well as hundreds of acres of vineyards, orchards, and fields, and sweeping away nearly every river bridge. A. N. Hamilton remembers the water suddenly breaking from its channel near Alameda and 14th Street and flowing “southwest by Expo Park through the Cienega and into Ballona Bay.” Another resident witnesses the “old winery by 9th street” washing away and the “Santa Fe [train] station” being three feet underwater. The valley between Main Street and Boyle Heights is described as a lake, a solid sheet of water. The river pushes so much wood down from the mountains that Angelenos have years of fuel. In downtown Los Angeles, a new channel is built, and improvements and changes are made to the zanja system
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