Staying above water: How Sacramento's resilience kept floodwaters away
SACRAMENTO -- Sacramento, nicknamed the indomitable city, came from its early years of resilience to keep California's Capitol where it is today. All of it happened in spite of flooding.
Like the confluence of the American and Sacramento rivers, time is at a confluence this week, too. The second week in January marks two historic floods in the city's history: 1850 and 1862. Add to it the recent flooding and atmospheric rivers that dropped record levels in January, and Sacramento's history is full of January floods.
"Some could fairly argue that the city was built in the wrong place -- the right time perhaps because of the Gold Rush -- but the wrong place, which was quickly revealed this month in 1850, the first flood of the brand-new city," said Shawn Turner, tour manager at the Sacramento History Museum.
Turner shares the ins and outs of Sacramento's history with guests daily at the museum and said the city's history with floods is showcased best on the museum's underground tour.
Why?
After the flood of 1862, city and county leaders were forced to make moves -- literally. The city began a 13-year process to lift hundreds of buildings 9.5 feet on average to keep them out of floodwaters. It was a slow process, Turner said, that took hundreds of workers a quarter-turn at a time to lift brick buildings without breaking their foundations.
The result of these lifts is an underground history lesson, at times, below the water level.
"There are things that made this crazy, ridiculous task worthwhile...and here the city still is," said Turner.
He explained many on his tours often suggest, "why didn't the city just move?" The answer wasn't so simple, as Sacramento's location was critical in the 1800s.
It was on the western route of the first North American Transcontinental Railroad. Plus, the city was named the capitol of California, a title and position early settlers to the region refused to lose. Therefore, the indomitable nickname was born out of the slow and likely -- at times -- grueling process to lift and shift the city away from floodwaters.
