photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Peg Price | all galleries >> Galleries >> California....Golden State > Swastika Dam Bridge
previous | next
26 December 20004 Peg Price

Swastika Dam Bridge

Laguna Dam Road off U.S. 95 in Yuma

Laguna Dam is sometimes called by this name due to the swastikas that were a part of its design.
When the dam was in its planning stages U.S. engineers went to India to study how silt dams were built since there were none in the U.S. While there they discovered the Hindu god Indra who had 4 arms and represented the power of water. Representatives thought this symbol, we're talking the early 1900s, would be perfect for the new U.S. Reclamation Service.

During WWII outraged citizens saw it only as the symbol for Nazi Germany and demanded the swastikas be removed from the dam. Guards had to be posted around the clock to protect the dam.

I drove down Laguna Dam Road out of Yuma until it turned to gravel. There I came upon the original (?) Laguna Dam with the concrete bridge pictured above a few hundred yards downstream of the dam. No swastikas were found on this dam or the Laguna Dam opposite it on S-24.

This bridge is the only remaining government property to display swastikas from the USRS construction days.


other sizes: small medium original auto
comment | share