San Gabriel River (California)
The San Gabriel River flows 60.6 miles (97.5 km) through southern Los Angeles County, California in the United States. Its main stem is about 43 miles (69 km) long, while its farthest tributaries extend almost 18 miles (29 km) altogether. It drains a long, narrow watershed basin extending from high in the San Gabriel Mountains above the eastern Los Angeles Basin, across the San Gabriel Valley, to the Pacific Ocean.
The river derives its name from the Spanish Mission San Gabriel Arcángel founded in 1771, now in the present day city of San Gabriel. It was free flowing with natural banks and a riparian zone habitat lined with riparian forests, marshes, and grasslands for much of its length and a large estuary at its mouth until the last century. Today most of the San Gabriel after leaving the foothills is restrained in a broad concrete flood control channel, and impounded in places by debris and stormwater management pond dams.
Read more about San Gabriel River (California): Course, Ecology, Watershed, History, Floods, River Modifications, Crossings
Famous quotes containing the words san, gabriel and/or river:
“The gold-digger in the ravines of the mountains is as much a gambler as his fellow in the saloons of San Francisco. What difference does it make whether you shake dirt or shake dice? If you win, society is the loser.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“To administer is to govern: to govern is to reign. That is the essence of the problem.”
—Honoré Gabriel Riquet, Comte De Mirabeau (1749–1791)
“The first man to discover Chinook salmon in the Columbia, caught 264 in a day and carried them across the river by walking on the backs of other fish. His greatest feat, however, was learning the Chinook jargon in 15 minutes from listening to salmon talk.”
—State of Oregon, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)