Roman aqueduct
Rome's first aqueduct was built in 312 BC, and supplied a water fountain at the city's cattle market. By the 3rd century AD, the city had eleven aqueducts, sustaining a population of over a million in a water-extravagant economy; most of the water supplied the city's many public baths. Cities and towns throughout the Roman Empire emulated this model, and funded aqueducts as objects of public interest and civic pride, "an expensive yet necessary luxury to which all could, and did, aspire".
San Buenaventura Mission Aqueduct
Accounts vary greatly as to when the aqueduct was built. One account indicates it was built between 1780 and 1790 by the Chumash Indians under the direction of a Spanish priest trained in hydrology. Others place its construction in the 1790s, and yet another indicates it was built between 1805 and 1815 by stonemasons brought from Mexico.