JW Bledsoe, California Photographer

Late 19th and Early 20th Century Photography of the California Wilderness

Category: Aqueduct

LA Aqueduct Cascades, 1913

Los Angeles Aqueduct Cascade Opening Ceremony, Nov. 5, 1913

Los Angeles Aqueduct Cascade Opening Ceremony, Nov. 5, 1913

Panoramic photo of the opening ceremony (November 5, 1913) for the Los Angeles Aqueduct, held at the Cascades. This is where the modern Interstate 5 crosses Balboa Blvd, around here: Google Map Location

Photograph taken by J.W. Bledsoe. Label on lower left corner reads “Cascades L.A.A. Nov. 5 1913 (c) 1913 by Bledsoe Photo Co.”

Part of the collection of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, this image was stitched together from four photographs of a print.

Construction of Los Angeles Aqueduct, ca. 1915

View of construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, ca. 1910-1920.

View of construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, ca. 1910-1920.

This is part of the collection of the Los Angeles Department of Water and  Power, which has the single largest collection of Bledsoe’s work that I have seen. Their collection is now held by the California Historical Society, and is archived, curated, and conserved by the University of Southern California library. It shows the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. The original images were on 6×8 glass plates, but these are rarely handled, and most images (including this one) have been scanned from internegatives or prints and have lost image quality along the way.

This is the library’s description of the image: Photograph of a view of construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, showing a wooden track, ca.1910-1920. A large, riveted pipe, supported by concrete blocks, runs from the left foreground to the hill that sits at the center background. A wooden track runs along the ground, parallel to the pipe. In the center of the image, two men lean on a cart that rests on the track. A metal apparatus with cables extending from the top, apparently used to hoist beams, sits to the right of the track. Hills are visible in the distance.

Photograph by J.W. Bledsoe

From the California Historical Society Collection at the University of Southern California

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15799coll65/id/3551/rec/6

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