Michael Maurice O'Shaughnessy was an Irish civil engineer who became city engineer for the city of San Francisco during the early twentieth century and developed both the San Francisco Municipal Railway and the Hetch Hetchy water system.
16 Facts About Michael O'Shaughnessy
2.
Michael O'Shaughnessy took mass at Old St Mary's Cathedral the next day.
3.
Michael O'Shaughnessy was responsible for surveying a site for a race course near Ingleside in 1890; originally, he had been contracted to survey a course on property that belonged to the Spring Valley Water Company, but the chief engineer of Spring Valley, Hermann Schussler, rejected the proposal over objections to stable waste, so Michael O'Shaughnessy surveyed what would become the Ingleside course at his own expense.
4.
Outside of this work, which involved surveying the right-of-way for a railroad and building it, Michael O'Shaughnessy kept busy surveying a rail route between Eureka and Red Bluff and working for Schussler to survey potential additions for Spring Valley Water in Alameda County.
5.
Michael O'Shaughnessy then turned his attention to the Territory of Hawaii, after Schussler called him on behalf of Edward Pollitz to map what would become the Wailuku Sugar Plantation in May 1899.
6.
Michael O'Shaughnessy then booked passage to the island of Hawaii to visit the plantation.
7.
Michael O'Shaughnessy's report impressed the company, which then hired him as a consulting engineer, reserving.
8.
Michael O'Shaughnessy was the daring engineer who conquered the jungle and the gorges, ran the ditch, and made the horse-trail.
9.
Michael O'Shaughnessy built enduringly, in concrete and masonry, and made one of the most remarkable water-farms in the world.
10.
Michael O'Shaughnessy essentially moved his engineering office from San Francisco to Hawaii, arriving in January 1900, but was quarantined upon arrival in Honolulu due to an outbreak of the plague which would lead to the fire and partial destruction of the local Chinatown.
11.
The meeting was to discuss business: Rolph held an option to purchase the more than 10,000-acre San Vincente Ranch near Santa Cruz, and he wanted Michael O'Shaughnessy to inspect the property and report back to Rolph on its condition.
12.
In December 1906, O'Shaughnessy was contacted by the brothers John D and Adolph B Spreckels, who asked him to inspect the work in progress on the Morena Dam, which they were building at Barrett near San Diego to supply water to the city, and estimate the cost and schedule to complete it.
13.
Construction of the dam itself was not completed until 1912; by that time, Michael O'Shaughnessy had been recruited by Rolph, now serving as Mayor of San Francisco.
14.
Privately, Michael O'Shaughnessy reveled in the symbolic victory over property owners that had opposed his 1891 Market Street extension survey.
15.
Michael O'Shaughnessy held the post of city engineer until 1932, when a new city charter was adopted, and he was appointed to the role of Consulting Engineer for Hetch Hetchy Water Supply by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
16.
Michael O'Shaughnessy was survived by his wife, Mary, and their five children: four daughters and a son.