Chula Vista

A bit of history

Chula Vista was laid out by the Santa Fe Railway in 1888 and incorporated as a city in 1911. The Sweetwater Dam, completed the same year the town was platted, brought irrigation water that let local growers turn the area into the world's largest lemon-growing center for several decades, before drought and freezes curtailed production in the 1910s. World War II brought a new industry when Rohr Aircraft Corporation, founded in 1940, built its aerostructures manufacturing plant on Chula Vista's bay front and employed up to 10,000 workers at its wartime peak. Rohr, now part of Collins Aerospace, was principally responsible for the city's 20th-century growth.