This presentation is based on an article prepared by Lawrence Magura which appeared in the March/April 2024 issue of ASCE’s Civil Engineering magazine, which discussed the design and construction of Crystal Springs Dam in San Mateo California. When completed to its full 145-foot height in 1890, it was the first large mass concrete gravity dam in the world, which, for the first time, provided the City of San Francisco with a reliable water supply.
Crystal Springs Dam was the first large dam built in North American exclusively using large quantities of unreinforced mass concrete, in an era that had previously relied on masonry and earthen embankments as the accepted methods for dam construction. This presentation will also focus on the role Hermann Schussler, a classically trained civil engineer from Germany, played in the design, procurement, and construction of Crystal Springs Dam in his capacity as chief engineer for the Spring Valley Water Company of San Francisco, and the numerous unique features he employed in the construction of the dam that later became standard practice for the construction of future large dams such as Hoover and Grand Coulee and many others.
