Bay Area picnics: Pulgas Water Temple, Redwood City

They called it an engineering marvel, and it was, even by today’s standards.

The aqueduct project to bring fresh water 160 miles — from the Sierra Nevada’s Hetch Hetchy Valley to the Bay Area — took 24 years to build and cost $102 million and the lives of dozens of construction workers.

On Oct. 28, 1934, crowds from San Francisco gathered on the Peninsula to see and hear the first bursts of mountain water. “With vivid memories of the fire that had raged unchecked after the Great Earthquake of 1906, the city rejoiced in its new secure, plentiful supply of high-quality drinking water,” the S.F. Water Co. website says of the public response.

Originally a wooden temple marked the spot where the water flowed into Crystal Springs Reservoir. A few years later, it was replaced by a stone temple nearby, designed in the Beaux Arts style that featured Greco-Roman architectural elements from centuries before. Corinthian columns. Landscaped grounds. A reflecting pool. It’s a vision straight out of a Maxfield Parrish painting — and a romantic spot for picnics or contemplation.

Across the bay there’s a similar monument, the Sunol Water Temple, built in 1910 and also a striking Beaux Arts design with Corinthian columns.

Ironically, “temple” was a word naturalist John Muir used during his years-long battle against the damming of Hetch Hetchy, a sister valley to Yosemite. He called it “a grand landscape garden, one of nature’s rarest and most precious mountain temples.” The controversy continues to this day — should Hetch Hetchy be returned to its natural state? — making Pulgas a perfect spot for a “what if” discussion among you conservationists and history buffs while you picnic.

The picnic: Stop at a Redwood City delicatessen — Prima Deli, which is open daily on Roosevelt Avenue, or Taza Deli & Cafe, weekdays only, on Broadway — to pick up sandwiches and sides. Or head to Woodside for the Village Bakery‘s farmers market salads and a loaf of artisan bread.