… As California entered the 20th century, massive public works projects surfaced to encourage economic expansion and transformation, notably in Southern California. Mid-century also saw arguably the state’s last truly transformative public works project, the California Water Plan. … The last decades of the 20th Century and the first decades of the 21st have been a period of stasis in public works. Projects such as the tunnel to carry water under the Delta and the Sites Reservoir to divert and store high flows on the Sacramento River have kicked around for decades. … Looking back, it’s amazing that the 363-mile Erie Canal could have been dug by hand in just eight years, or that the two San Francisco bridges were erected in just a few years.
–Written by CalMatters columnist Dan Walters.