California Aqueduct

Flying from New Jerusalem airfield, California.

The California Aqueduct is a truly amazing engineering project!
It carries water 444 miles from rivers in the north of the state to feed Los Angeles.

This is the start of the California Aqueduct proper,
but the water comes from rivers even farther north.


It immediately gets pumped up to a higher level
in order to flow by gravity on it's way south.

The Delta-Mendota irrigation canal on the left, and the California Aqueduct of the right,
and a wind farm in the middle.
Real examples of American enterprise!


Water and freeway and power, all feeding Los Angeles.
The city couldn't exist without all this input, it would be just dry desert.....
And irrigation water supplying that lush valley that was once desert like the hills.
Truly impressive stuff....


Power lines feeding Los Angeles.

Flying from a private agricultural strip.

Until it gets to the Tehachapi Mtns....
This pumping station lifts all that water nearly 2000 feet
and pushes it through tunnels under the mountains.
Now that's an engineering challenge!

That requires more than a million horse power!

Supplied by several power lines and a dedicated gas-fired power station.

Of course the farmers in the Central Valley resent all that water
going to 'waste' to flush toilets and green golf courses in the big city.
There has been mention of blowing it up to save water!

Flying from Brian Ranch airfield, California.

And this is where it exits on the south side to the mountains.

Then goes on and on.

And more on and on.....

 Past the suburbs of Palmdale.

 And across more desert.

 Until it ends in that lake in the background.

Those outlets on the far side take the water down into the Los Angeles basin.

This is the nearby I-15 freeway headed down into the LA basin,
under all that smog......