On the morning of April 18, 1906, at 5:12 a.m., San Francisco was shaken awake by a great earthquake.

 

San Francisco is gone. Nothing remains of it but memories and a fringe of dwelling-houses on its outskirts. Its industrial section is wiped out. Its business section is wiped out. Its social and residential section is wiped out. The factories and warehouses, the great stores and newspaper buildings, the hotels and the palaces of the nabobs, are all gone. Remains only the fringe of dwelling-houses on the outskirts od what was once San Francisco. Within an hour after the earthquake shock the smoke of San Francisco's burning was a lurid tower visible over a hundred miles away. And for three days and nights this lurid tower swayed in the sky, reddening the sun, darkening the day, and filling the land with smoke. San Francisco, at the present time, is like the crater of a volcano, around which are camped tens of thousands of refugees. The government has the situation in hand, and, ...the bankers and buisness men have already set about making preparations to rebuild San Francisco. Jack London, May 5, 1906

We start our virtual field trip near the front of old City Hall, which faced out toward Market Street. The structure shows the effects of extremely poor workmanship in what would become a scandal in the city administration. It was said that it, "Comes from mixing bad politics with bad cement!"

Crossing Market to the Mission District we come to one of the few buildings to survive both the earthquake and fire. At Seventh and Mission is the U.S. Post Office which was saved by the heroic efforts of dedicated postal employees who reported to work on the morning of the18th, and began sorting mail.

At Fifth and Mission is another of the few buildings that survived both the quake and fire - the United States Mint. This building was a massive construction of brick and granite,with iron shutters to hold out the flames which reached here at about noon. Heroic employees fought off flames on the wood roof.

Turning slightly clockwise to the northeast we see the Flood Building along Market Street at the famous Powell cable car turnaround. Although this building was burned out, the unusual triangular floor plan added strength to resist shaking damage.

Looking down Mission we view a typical scene of destruction with wreckage of iron work thrown into the street from the fronts of burned out buildings. The large intact building to the right is the Aronson Building while others include Rialta and Wells Fargo Buildings. Mission street was one of San Francisco's busiest thoroughfares.

The ruins of St. Patrick's Church along Mission Street in the Yerba Buena District allows us to view the tower of the tallest structure in the city in 1906, the Call Building on Market. It was 20 stories tall, and more would be added after the quake because of its structural strength. Looking northeast.

The Call Building at Third Street from the other side of Market Street was the home of one of the great western newspapers. Mark Twain wrote for the Call when he experienced the large 1865 Earthquake. The other large building to the right is the Mutual Savings Bank.

The Palace Hotel was the grand hotel of the city. It was here that Enrico Caruso stayed on the night before the earthquake. The Palace was thought to be indestructible, but its outer wood facing and interior was destroyed by fire at about 11 o'clock. We are looking across Market Street at New Montgomery.

This view of smoldering ruins was taken while the fire still raged at the other end of the city possibly on the 20th of April. It is from the Appraiser's Building with the intact Kohl Building to the right. The Kohl Building was the only major high-rise in the burned district to escape without major fire damage.

Looking over the ruins of Chinatown near Portsmouth Square, the old heart of the city, toward Nob Hill . The square shell of the Fairmont Hotel, which had not yet opened for business, can be seen on the skyline. Most of Chinatown's brittle brick buildings were shattered by the one minute of strong shaking.

One of two pockets of houses within the burned district that were spared as the fire swept around the city. This one on Russian Hill was aided by the heroic efforts of the military. Elsewhere the military effort actually helped spread the fire by the indiscriminate use of dynamite to check the flames.

We end our tour of the earthquake survivors in Union Square at the base of the Dewey Monument. Dedicated by President William McKinley in honor of Admiral Dewey, this fragile looking column survived severe shaking because it contained an iron core. Here was one of the refugees food stations.