Southern Pacific Railroad Water Settling Reservoir, Yuma Crossing, south bank of Colorado River at foot of Madison Avenue, Yuma, Yuma County, AZ

Significance: The railroad, reaching Arizona Territory form California in 1877, was the first railroad to arrive in Arizona and the second to be built eastward from the West, connecting with the Texas Pacific east of El Paso. The first was the Central Pacific, the western portion of the first transcontinental railroad, which joined the Union Pacific at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869. The second line to cross Arizona, the Atlantic and Pacific (later the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe) arrived in Arizona in 1880 from the Albuquerque and reached the Colorado River in 1883.
The South Pacific Railroad Water Settling Reservoir was probably the first water works in Arizona to provide treated (settled) water by a system of underground pipes to the residents and businesses of a community as well as to railroad locomotives and other railroad facilities.
Survey number: HAER AZ-66
Building/structure dates: 1882 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1903 Subsequent Work