Zanja Madre: Life and death on LA’s first water system
For more than a century, the zanja system, a series of irrigation ditches that brought water from the Río de Porciúncula (now the LA River) to the homes and fields of Los Angeles, was the lifeblood of the region. At its height in 1888, 52 miles of zanjas, half open earth and half concrete, ran within the city limits. An additional 40 miles of zanjas ran outside the city proper. Controlled by the local government, the water that flowed in these zanjas enabled life, and occasionally death, to flourish in Los Angeles.