Today the beauty of Los Angeles is dramatically symbolic of the ancient prophecy: The desert shall “blossom like a rose.”

This blossoming was made possible by the birth of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, opened 100 years ago this month. The opening of the aqueduct might as well have been the birth of the modern West and the image of the city as a “Garden of Eden.”

The vast quantities of water the aqueduct moved made Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix and other cities across the region possible.