Hansen Dam

Hansen Dam
Tributaries: Little Tujunga Wash, Big Tujunga Creek Drain: Hansen Lake (Reservoir) → Tujunga Wash → Los Angeles River Major cities nearby: los Angeles
United States
Coordinates	34 ° 15 '37 "  N , 118 ° 23' 8"  W Coordinates: 34 ° 15 '37 "  N , 118 ° 23' 8"  W.
Data on the structure
Construction time:	1939-1940
Height of the barrier structure :	30 m
Crown length:	3.2 km
Data on the reservoir
Water surface	5.26 km²
Storage space	91.4 million m³

The Hansen Dam is a dam in the northeast of the San Fernando Valley in the US city of Los Angeles which is used for flood protection . The dam and surrounding recreation area are part of the Lake View Terrace district .

Damaged the bed of Tujunga Wash during the 1938 flood .

In 1938 Los Angeles suffered significant flooding . As a result, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the city's water administration were commissioned to develop a system to prevent such flood disasters in the future. In addition to the enclosure of the Los Angeles River and its tributaries in flood control basin, the plan called for the construction of weirs before to after heavy rain catch occurring flood water. One of these dams is the Hansen Dam, which prevents flood hazards along the Tujunga Wash .

Hansen Dam, Lake View Terrace

When the dam was completed in 1940, it was the largest structure of its kind in the world. The construction required the labor of about 1000 men.

The facility is horseshoe-shaped and about a quarter of a mile thick at its base. It is not designed to catch flood water, but to slow it down and only gradually release it into a reservoir , which is sometimes also referred to as Hansen Lake. The dam connects the Verdugo Mountains at the east end with the promontory of the San Gabriel Mountains .

The dam was named after the horse breeders Homer and Marie Hansen who founded a farm there in the 19th century. This farm in Tujunga Canyon was declared a recreation area in 1931.

Web links

Commons : Hansen Dam  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Char Miller, Wading into the LA River's Braided Past , KCET, April 25, 2012.
2. ^ Hansen Dam on the homepage of the Los Angeles Conservatory.
3. ^ Marc Wanamaker: Images of America - San Fernando Valley , Arcadia Publishing, Charleston (South Carolina) 2011, ISBN 978-0-7385-7157-7 , p. 32.
4. ^ Marc Wanamaker: Images of America - San Fernando Valley , Arcadia Publishing, Charleston (South Carolina) 2011, ISBN 978-0-7385-7157-7 , p. 30.