View of the concrete arch bridge across the Grand Canal. By photographer Walter J. Lubken, February 5, 1909.The Grand Canal had been constructed just five years before, in 1878, by the Grand Canal Company. The canal, which was built on the north side of the Salt River, was one of largest of the nine that makes up the Valley's canal system.
“It was, probably, the breaking of this dam that caused the tidal wave of four feet breast that is reported to have swept down the river about eight or nine o’clock in the morning,” the Phoenix Gazette continued. “The head gate of Mr. Calderwood’s canal was carried away, and how many more is not known at this writing.”
“To keep the country from flooding the canal was cut where the water would return to the river,” reported the Weekly Phoenix Herald four days later.
The Grand Canal is now considered the oldest original canal on the north side of the Salt left standing.
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