retraction

I must apologize to William Mulholland and his family
for wrongfully linking him with the likes of Fred
Eaton. Eaton was a weasel who profited immensely and
criminally by passing himself off as a federal
official (which I thought was a crime, but I guess
not).

Mulholland, who was Eaton's partner, did not profit
from the aqueduct in any way other than his government
salary. In fact, William Mulholland was, at best, a
bona fide genius and, at worst, an engineering geek.
He was famous at parties for his ability to commit to
memory the entirety of the Los Angeles water works
system. If asked, he could tell you the exact size,
width, and length of any pipe under any street in Los
Angeles.

And yet, even greater than that accomplishment, he
engineered the aqueduct--the longest of its kind at
the time--and got it done on time and under budget.

Finally, and the primary reason for this retraction,
William Mulholland, was a bit of a tragic hero. In
1928, one of the dams he built, the St. Francis Dam
near Piru, burst. Sending water, debris, and thousand
pound chunks of cement tumbling through the Santa
Clara valley and towards the Pacific Ocean, over 50
miles from the dam. Five hundred people died.
Everyone, including the man himself, blamed Mulholland
for the tragedy. He died believing he was
responsible.

In 1992, a geological survey team determined that the
dam broke for reasons beyond Mulholland's control
(something about an ancient landslide or something
like that).

So, I write all this so that William Mulholland's name
not be besmirched again by being linked unkindly to a
money-grubbing, amoral, puss-bucket like Fred Eaton.