About a month ago, workers at Chinatown's Blossom Plaza development unearthed something that owners were hesitating to call a piece of the Zanja Madre, the aqueduct that carried water to the original Pueblo de Los Angeles in the early days of the city (it's believed it was built in 1781), but here we have it: confirmation that the brick channel found on the site of the 237-unit mixed-user is indeed the Mother Ditch. KCET reports that work has been temporarily stopped until developer Forest City can figure out how to proceed. There's no telling how long work could be halted, but nobody wants it to be offline for long: "We don't want to impede on the development at Blossom Plaza, but we also want to make sure we're able to preserve the piece," says a rep for Councilmember Gil Cedillo, who called it early on that this find was more than just some run-of-the-mill bricks.
There's some talk of possibly incorporating the Zanja into the existing designs for Blossom Plaza or into the enormous water wheel art project nearby, but nothing definite's been decided yet. Forest City's archaeological team is documenting everything in anticipation of preparing a full report on the find.
· L.A.'s Historic 'Mother Ditch' Discovered in Chinatown [KCET]
· Part of LA's 1800s Aqueduct Possibly Unearthed in Chinatown [Curbed LA]
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