Did Construction Workers Just Unearth L.A.’s Original Aqueduct?

It begin as lilliputian more than a modest trench in the land , but its name — Zanja Madre , or Mother Ditch — talk to the grandness of this proto - aqueduct to early Los Angeles . Diverting H2O from the free - flowing Los Angeles River , the Zanja Madre did indeed nurture tiny Los Angeles , founded in 1781 as an agricultural colony on the fringe of the Spanish empire . The ditch water the colonist ’ fields . It quench the thirst of stock . It provided a quick source of domestic body of water . In short , it give animation to Los Angeles .

Part of the Zanja Madre , which supplied the urban center with water into the twentieth century and in later days was lined and encased with brick , wasuncoveredduring construction of Metro ’s light - rail Gold Line in 2005 . A short piece of the brick pipelineis still exposed alongside the tracksnear the Los Angeles State Historic Park .

Now , building of the mixed - use Blossom Plaza development in L.A. ’s Chinatown district has likely unearthed another segment of this sometime watercourse . News of the discoverybroke in March , butuncertainty surrounded claimsthat the bury brick was in reality the Zanja Madre until to begin with today , when theFriends of the Los Angeles Riversharedthese photographs(reproduced with permit above and below ) by William Preston Bowling . As the pic give away , the pipeline unearthed in Chinatown deliver a striking resemblance tothe incision of the Zanja Madre along the Gold Line track .

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Historical function also seem to reassert that the Zanja Madre once scarper through the site , located along College Street between Broadway ( previously “ Calle de Eternidad ” ) and Spring ( once “ Calle Principal”).This 1875 mapfrom the Huntington Library shows the watercourse crossing the construction website :

As doesthis 1868 mapfrom the Los Angeles Public Library ’s Map Collection :

According to KCET ’s Carren Jao , wreak on the Blossom Plaza is on hold as official decide how best to preserve and display the historical artifact . [ h / t Lila Higgins & Friends of the Los Angeles River ]

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