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The ''Zanja Madre'' (English: "Mother Ditch") is the original aqueduct that brought water to the Pueblo de Los Angeles from the Río Porciuncula (Los Angeles River). The original open, earthen ditch was completed by community laborers within a month of founding the pueblo. This water system was used for both domestic uses and irrigation to fields west of town. This availability of water was essential to the survival and growth of the community founded here. were built to improve the system after 1884. Eventually the system did not supply enough water to keep pace with population growth and irrigation demand. The system was abandoned by 1904 though portions were still used for storm water purposes.〔("Zanja Madre, Los Angeles County" ) ''Cogstone Resource Management Inc.'' Website Accessed 29 April 2014〕 The recent construction and grading along the Metro Gold Line and several projects in Chinatown have created a major archaeological interest in its latest "rediscovery" and possible preservation. ==Origins== The Pueblo de Los Angeles, formally named "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de Los Angeles sobre el Rio Porciuncula", was an official settlement of Spain. They had three types of settlements in Alta California: presidio (military), mission (religious) and pueblo (civil). The pueblos would provide the commercial and agricultural needs of the military as an alternative to the missions. Governor Felipe de Neve took the assignment of creating this settlement very seriously and had elaborate plans drawn up outlining the details of its infrastructure. The plan included a governmental directive for the provision of water to be delivered to the settlement, stating, "there should be examined all the lands which may receive the benefit of irrigation, marking the place most proper to divert the water, so that it may be allotted to the largest portion of lands.〔Irrigation Development: History, Customs, Laws, and Administrative Systems Relating to Irrigation, Water-courses, and Waters in France, Italy, and Spain. The Introductory Part of the Report of the State Engineer of California, on Irrigation and the Irrigation Question, Volume 2 (Google eBook)〕" It was also directed that the pueblo be placed on moderately elevated ground so that all the agricultural lands benefiting from the irrigation could be overlooked. This would mean that the supply head would have to be at yet higher ground. The Zanja Madre was placed close to present-day Broadway at the foot of the Elysian Hills by the river. An earth and brush dam, called a ''toma'', was created to pool up the water into the ditch which then ran along an elevated slope down to the pueblo after which it was split into multiple ditches which ran to the various portions of lowland. A large water wheel, constructed in the 1850s, took water up to the Zanja Madre and onto the main brick reservoir that was located in what is now the Plaza at the end of Olvera Street. The wheel was susceptible to damage from floods. The toma was washed away several times before a wooden one was built in its place.〔("Zanja No. 3: Brick Culvert HAER No. CA-50" ) (1986) Historic American Engineering Record, National Park Service〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Zanja Madre」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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