The original O’Shaughnessy Dam was 226 feet above riverbed. It was raised from its original height in 1938. Today the O’Shaughnessy Dam is 312 feet above riverbed and 430 feet above bedrock. Below is a bedrock contour map developed for the dam. This illustration is taken from Contract No. 61, “For the Construction of Hetch…
Category: History
A Look Back in History: State of California Annual Runoff in Acre Feet per Capita
In the map below, the State of California is sectioned into seven distinct population areas with southwestern portions of the state as an outlier. The map is embedded in a report entitled, “Necessity for the Conservation of the Water Supply of California.” As this report, by J.B. Lippencott, is dated July 1920, it may be…
A Look Back in History: Upgrading Radio Services in 1943
In mid 1943, wartime caution was in the air and the Peninsula Superintendent. For the San Francisco Water Department, it was warning against “trouble” and promoting new communications technology for the San Mateo Sheriff Office. In 1943, a Superintendent of the Water Department contacted the Federal Communications Commission to endorse the San Mateo County Sheriff’s…
A Look Back in History: Sawyer Camp Picnic Reservations in 1925
The Archive has a record of groups taking advantage of Peninsula “Open Space” during the 1925 picnic season. There are a lot of Clubs and Lodges on the list, such as Rotary, Kiwanis, and the San Mateo Elks Club. But several obscure ones are included as well, such as the Bay City Lodge and the…
A Look Back in History: Hetch Hetchy Dam Factoids
The photograph below is the cover to Contract No. 61 of the San Francisco Department of Public Works. The contract is for the construction of Hetch Hetchy Dam. Notice that it is the “Proposal form” of the contract. This contract includes 98 pages of text and 46 pages of drawings. Going through the pages, it…
A Look Back in History: Spring Valley Water Company’s Assets and Services 1925
The following 1925 overview is from “The Water Supply of San Francisco” as reported in 1925 by George A. Elliott, Vice President and Chief Engineer of Spring Valley Water Company (SVWC): Capacity of the system in 1925 was 66 million gallons per day (MGD). Consumption of this amount was about 42.5 MGD. Of that, about…