The Fatal Dam Flaw That Erased a City in a Single Night

In 1928, the St. Francis Dam collapsed, releasing 12 billion gallons of water into California's San Francisquito Canyon. Designed by William Mulholland to supply Los Angeles, this massive gravity dam lacked independent engineering oversight and was built on unstable geological foundations. We analyze the severe structural deficits, ignored safety protocols, and hydrostatic physics that led to one of the most monumental infrastructure failures in American history, changing modern dam safety.