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Rare early map of the region around San Diego Bay, extending to the Sweetwater Dam and Reservoir, from the Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Volume 19.
Construction of the Sweetwater Dam in the eastern part of San Diego was originally the ide of Frank Kimball. Construction of the original dam began in November 1886. A few months into the dam's construction, the owner of the water system, San Diego Land and Town Co., brought in engineer James Schuyler to modify the project. Schuyler, born in New York and a former California assistant state engineer, used metavolcanic rock taken from the adjacent quarry instead of concrete composed of cement mortar for the building material. The rock was then cut into large, bricklike pieces that were built into a 90-foot arched structure, held in place with concrete made from cement shipped in barrels from Belgium. The dam was finished April 7, 1888, at a cost of $234,074.11.
![(California Oil Fields) [15 original photographs of Tupman Lease oil derricks and oil facilities at Taft, Kern County, California]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/94701.jpg)