California Aqueduct, Water conveyance system in Kern County, US

The California Aqueduct is a concrete-lined canal running through Kern County in California, built to move water over long distances with the help of pumping stations. The canal flows through flat farmland and climbs over mountain ranges to deliver water where rainfall is scarce.

California launched a large water project in the early 1960s to supply the dry southern part of the state with water from the north. Over the following decades, engineers built a system of canals, pumps and reservoirs to move water across hundreds of miles.

The aqueduct is named after Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Sr., governor of California when the State Water Project was launched; construction began in 1963 and the Coastal Branch was finished in 1997. Its water serves 35 million people and 5.7 million acres of farmland. In the 1970s a 172 km paved bikeway along the channel, then California's longest, ran from Quail Lake to Silverwood Lake; it closed in 1988 over safety and liability questions.

Visitors driving along the canal see long straight stretches of concrete flowing through open farmland, with occasional bridges and control buildings nearby. Access is limited in most areas, but some sections can be viewed from public roads alongside the channel.

One of the pumping plants lifts water nearly 2000 feet (about 600 meters) over a mountain range, a height that requires multiple pumps working in series. This engineering allows the system to reach dry regions on the other side of the mountains.