Located in Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

, the Sepulveda Dam is a project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, built in 1941 to withhold winter flood

Flood

A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...

 waters along the Los Angeles River

Los Angeles River

The Los Angeles River is a river that starts in the San Fernando Valley, in the Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains, and flows through Los Angeles County, California, from Canoga Park in the western end of the San Fernando Valley, nearly southeast to its mouth in Long Beach...

. It is located south of center in the San Fernando Valley

San Fernando Valley

The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...

, about eight miles east of the river's official source in the western end of the Valley.

Sepulveda Dam, along with Hansen Dam in the north San Fernando Valley, was constructed after the historic 1938 floods on the Los Angeles River which killed 144 people. Sepulveda Dam was placed at the then current edge of the city (1940)--east of the dam the river was crowded into a narrow bottom by the city's growth. One legacy of Sepulveda Dam is the huge undeveloped area in the center of the Valley--used for wildlife and urban park. But another legacy of the 1938 Los Angeles River flood was the post-WWII channelization of all the Valley's dry washes, which along with the post-WWII rapid suburbanization left the Valley with hot dry concrete-lined river bottoms, instead of greenbelts and connecting bikepaths.

Behind the dam, the Sepulveda Basin is home to several large recreation areas and park

Park

A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...

s, a model-aircraft field, The Japanese Garden

The Japanese Garden

right|thumb|250px|rightThe Japanese Garden 6.5 acres is located on the grounds of the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Woodley Park, at 6100 Woodley Avenue, Van Nuys, California, USA, in the midst of the San Fernando Valley. It was designed by Dr. Koichi Kawana and constructed between 1980 and...

, a wildlife refuge, a water reclamation plant and an armory. The Basin is kept free of urban over-building so that water can build up there during a prospective hundred-year flood.

Sepulveda Dam's elaborate concrete spillways, seen from the San Diego Freeway, represent one of Los Angeles' best examples of the President Franklin Roosevelt inspired public construction inspired by the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

. It's a often used location for car commercials.

Bike path

The Sepulveda Dam bike path is a loop that starts at Victory Boulevard and Interstate 405, runs westward to White Oak Avenue with an alternate loop at Balboa Boulevard, and returns to Victory Boulevard via Woodley Boulevard. The western stretch along Balboa Boulevard is frequented by soccer players and observers, which can make cycling tedious; however in that same area is some of the most beautiful scenery under bridges and along the rush of water in the narrow riverbed wooded by native, fragrant Arroyo Willows.

The south run of the loop leads by parking lots, and is frequented by joggers and children. The path also has a high instance of burr-bearing plant life, which can cause catastrophic flats. Even so, the ever-present tumbleweed

Tumbleweed

A tumbleweed is the above-ground part of a plant that, once mature and dry, disengages from the root and tumbles away in the wind. Usually, the tumbleweed is the entire plant apart from the roots, but in a few species it is a flower cluster. The tumbleweed habit is most common in steppe and desert...

s are interesting, especially when they do not heap up together and block the bikepath altogether.

There is abundant parking available from the Burbank Blvd. side, as well as street parking along Woodley and Balboa Boulevards. Access is continuous.

External links

• Sepulveda Dam background and data
• Friends of the Sepulveda Basin, organization website
• Friends of Lake Balboa, organization website