Monteagle Mountain, between Nashville and Chattanooga, has a
down-slope several miles long, and truckers going down this slope on
Interstate 24 sometimes have brake failure.  I remember reading about
one case, several years ago, where a truck with burnt-out brakes made
it into a turn-out near the bottom.  Unfortunately, he was moving
fast enough that, despite the deep gravel intended to stop the truck,
it went out the far side of the turn-out, over an earthen berm, and
off a cliff, killing the driver.

Nashville is the junction point for three Interstates (I-24, I-65,
and I-40), so we have hundreds of trucks, and thousands of cars,
passing through each day.  About once a month, on the average, I see
an 18-wheeler that has overturned after trying to take an exit ramp
curve too fast.  Fortunately, most of those accidents aren't fatal.

The irrigation water for the central valley comes from the winter snow pack
in the mountains.

For more information see http://tinyurl.com/yqqa6

I've heard that the California Aqueduct and the great wall of China are the
only man made things visible from outer space.

Jo

It's been years since I lived there, joined the Army in '73 and only
been back for visits since, but California has spent mega-bucks to
distribute water around the state. Like you say, the LA basin gets
lots of water down from Northern Ca, which has to be pumped up over
the mountains. Last I heard, there was talk about trying to bring some
water to San Diego from the Colorado River, again up over mountains. A
lot of the Co River now ends up in the Imperial Valley, again big
agriculture area which is desert dependent on irrigation. Lots and
lots of lettuce comes from there, as well as cotton and other crops.

As far as the Central Valley goes, water coming down from the
mountains is diverted into several manmade lakes, Lakes Ming,
Isabella, and Success come to mind, and they also get lots of that
Northern Calif water. About 2/3 of the Valley watershed in in the
north, while the southern end only averages about 5 inches of rain
annually.

The Kern River pretty much ends once it reaches the Valley. If you're
a CW music fan you might remember a Merle Haggard song, from years
ago, about a friend who drowns in the Mighty Kern River. When I was
growing up he, and Buck Owens, both lived out by the mouth of the
valley where the River came down into the Central Valley. It was
growing up it was just a dry riverbed by the time it reached
Bakersfield, though the last few years they have been letting a
trickle of water run most of the time.

All this is a pretty simplistic overview of one of the world's biggest
water distribution systems, which has been on ongoing thing since the
1880s. I was really fascinated by it back in high school. A lot of
what I'm saying may be outdated, since it comes from what I remember
researching a term paper in High school.

You'll find thousands of articles if you google it - which I did to
remind myself about Hetch Hetchy. Hetch Hetchy is the part of the
system which transfers water from Yosemite to San Francisco. Built
between the thirties, John Muir led the fight to keep the Yosemite
River from being dammed. It's such a concern now because it can't keep
up with demand, is old needs major reconstruction, and crosses three
major earthquake fault lines. If you remember a few years ago when the
Silicon Valley was really hurting during a drought, that's the system
from which they get their water, IIRC.

OK, I'll back away from the podium now so we can get back to the truly
important cat related stuff.