From ABC10 – The river barreled over, sinking the streets of Sacramento in 6-feet of water. It was streaming fast, flooding the hotels and houses of Gold Rush migrants hoping to find fortune in the bountiful land of California. “This will be a day never to be forgotten by the residents of Sacramento City as a day that awoke their fears for the safety of their city against the dangers of a flood long since prophesied,” a horrified witness described to The Daily Alta California as he watched his city ripped apart in 1850. After 170 years, Sacramento is still seeing the effects of The Great Flood. You may not have known it ever occurred or the damage that was done, and yet, it marked the beginning of a legacy that Sacramentans would recognize immediately: Hundreds and hundreds of levees. (more)