The River
Did you know that there's a river running through Los Angeles? Just like St. Louis, New York, and Paris. But the river doesn't leave a a green trail down the center of our fair city, instead we have a shallow toxic trickle meandering down its concrete bed.The river has been there far longer than anything else, but as these things happen in the desert, most of the year it was little more than a stream. The channel itself runs from the San Gabriel and Santa Monica Mountains. When snows in the mountains melted, or it rained, flash floods roared down through the valley, along the Ballona Creek bed to the ocean.
At one time, the Los Angeles River was the main source of water for the city, but as it grew, people were often threatened by the flooding. After the Los Angeles Aqueduct was opened in 1913, it was decided that the river must be contained. During the 1920s, the Army Corps of Engineers dug out the channel and cemented it over, making into what we see today. Few parts remain unpaved -- the flood channel behind the Sepulveda Dam in Van Nuys, the Glendale Narrows, east of Griffith Park and as it meets the sea in Long Beach.
People's attitudes about the river can be surprising. Some people barely know it exists. (They may slightly better off than the rest of us, simply because they keep their eyes on the road.) Currently, there's a movement to restore the river, turning the water that it channels into the sea into usable water for the city. Some parts are even marked as wildlife preserves. These nods to its origins as a thing of nature belie the Frankenstein's monster it has become.
The L.A. River is the dark shadow of its Aqueduct. Often dirty, lined with garbage and graffiti, criscrossed with bridges and power lines, it is a home to the indigent and the addicted. It swells to crazy proportions when it rains, a glance down its length from one of its many bridges shows the dark water and swirling currents ready to swallow unwary children and foolish adults. Though tamed by its concrete channel, it remains one of the wildest, most dangerous predators to slouch the breadth of the city.
posted by kuaptic. @ 2:41 PM
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