The Great San Francisco Earthquake
Wednesday, April 18, 1906
When I first moved to San Francisco earlier this year, I took an hours-long walk around the city. I can remember remarking at the contrast between old and new throughout the city. Sure, there are the housing and building law issues, the NIMBYs, and the lack of adequate public transportation. But take Market street in downtown — on the north side, the buildings are older, stately, and packed. But go south, and for a while you’re greeted with sky-crapers and apartment blocks, warehouses, and spread-out city blocks. It’s drastically different.
In New York, old and new certainly contrast. There are some places, like Hudson Yards, where many sky-scrapers live together. And then there are other places, like the West Village, where there are no modern buildings at all. But for most of the city, it’s highly varied — one building may be an old factory remodeled, and the next may be glass and steel.
But in San Francisco, that isn’t the case. And a lot of the reason has to do with one event: The earthquake of 1906. As you will read, it was easily the deadliest earthquake in US history. It was a magnitude 7.9 shock that killed more than 3,000 people. Tons of buildings were destroyed by the shaking. But after that, fires broke out around the city, and because the water mains had all burst, there was literally no way to put them out. Huge swaths of the city were totally destroyed, one of which being what we now know as SoMa, or south of Market Street.
If you’ve visited San Francisco, you might have wondered why the Civic Center and City Hall area is so spread out — that’s because the whole area, including the city’s Capitol building, was totally destroyed. And next to it, neighboring Van Ness Avenue was bombed in an attempt to widen it so that the fires wouldn’t be able to spread. Van Ness used to be a quiet and residential street, lined with mansions — but today, it’s a commercial thoroughfare as wide as a highway.
OVER 500 DEAD, $200,000,000 LOST IN SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE
Nearly half the city is in ruins and 50,000 are homeless. Water supply fails and dynamite is used in vain.
April 19, 1906SAN FRANCISCO, April 18.––Earthquake and fire to-day have put nearly half of San Francisco in ruins. About 500 persons have been killed, a thousand injured, and the property loss will exceed $200,000,000.
Fifty thousand people are homeless and destitute, and all day long streams of people have been fleeing from the stricken districts to places of safety.
It was 5:13 this morning when a terrific earthquake shock shook the whole city and surrounding country. One shock apparently lasted two minutes, and there was almost immediate collapse of flimsy structures all over the city.
The water supply was cut off, and when fires started in various sections there was nothing to do but let the buildings burn. Telegraph and telephone communication was cut off for a time.
The Western Union was put completely out of business and the Postal Company was the only one that managed to get a wire out of the city. About 10 o’clock even the Postal was forced to suspend.
Electric power was stopped and street cars did not run, railroads and ferryboats also ceased operations. The various fires raged all day and the fire department has been powerless to do anything except dynamite buildings threatened. All day long explosions have shaken the city and added to the terror of inhabitants.
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First warning at 5:13 A.M.Most of the people of San Francisco were asleep at 5:13 o’clock this morning when the terrible earthquake came without warning.
The motion of disturbance apparently was from east to west. At first the upheaval of the earth was gradual, but in a few seconds it increased in intensity. Chimneys began to fall and buildings to crack, tottering on their foundations.
The people became panic-stricken, and rushed into the streets, most of them in their night attire. They were met by showers of falling bricks, cornices, and walls of buildings.
Many were crushed to death, while others were badly mangled. Those who remained indoors generally escaped with their lives, though scores were hit by detached plaster, pictures, and articles thrown to the floor by the shock. It is believed that more or less loss was sustained by nearly every family in the city.
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Fires start in many places.
Scarcely had the earth ceased to shake when fires started simultaneously in many places. The Fire Department promptly responded to the first calls for aid, but it was found that the water mains had been rendered useless by the underground movement.Fanned by a light breeze, the flames quickly spread, and soon many blocks were seen to be doomed. Then dynamite was resorted to, and the sound of frequent explosions added to the terror of the people. These efforts to stay the progress of the fire, however, proved futile.
The south side of Market street, from Ninth Street to the bay, was soon ablaze, the fire covering a belt two blocks wide. On this, the main thoroughfare, were many of the finest edifices in the city, including the Grant, Parrott, Flood, Call, Examiner, and Monadnock Buildings, and the Palace and Grand Hotels.
At the same time commercial establishments and banks north of Market Street were burning. The burning district in this section of the city extended from Sansome Street to the water front, and from Market Street to Broadway.
Fires also started in the Mission, and the entire city seemed to be in flames.
GIST OF THE DAY’S CALAMITY
April 18, 1906The latest reports of the San Francisco earthquake shows that the death loss will exceed a thousand; property loss is over $40,000,000, with the probability that if all reports are true, it will reach over $100,000,000.
Berkeley College is wrecked
Washington, April 18. — The government has received a bulletin from the Western Union stating that it is reported that Berkeley is demolished. Berkeley is the seat of the great university of California.Stanford University demolished
Palo Alto, April 18. — Stanford University is demolished. One student killed.
All south of Market is gone
New York, April 18. — A dispatch to the Western Union from San Francisco says the Palace Hotel and everything south of Market street is gone. Practically all of the wholesale district has been destroyed. The fire and wind is spreading to the Hayes Valley district.— Lewiston Evening Teller, Lewiston, Idaho
FIRE IS BURNING UP THE DEAD AND INJURED
Late reports only tend to increase the horror of the awful story––wide cracks in the streetsSan Francisco, April 18.––(8:40 a.m.)––As the reports of the earthquake disaster come in the magnitude of the affair grows greater.
Fire is raging in all directions, and people are moving out of the down town sections. The loss of life may reach into the hundreds, and millions of dollars in property has been destroyed.
Building falls––75 killed.
The Valencia, a five-story frame building at the corner of 17th and 18th streets, has toppled over into the street, and 75 people are said to be buried alive in the debris.
Many of the houses are damaged so badly that it is impossible to get the fire apparatus out.
A lodging house on Seventh street between Howard and Mission, known as the Kingsley, has entirely collapsed. It is now on fire and between 75 and 80 people are believed to be buried in its ruins.
At twenty-second and Mission streets the dry-goods store of Lipman is on fire and is threatening destruction to the entire corner.
— Lewiston Evening Teller, Lewiston, Idaho
SCIENTISTS DISCUSS QUAKE FOR LAYMEN
Explanation of the disturbance
April 19, 1906Washington, April 19. — Gilbert N. Grosvenor, editor of the National Geographic Magazine and one of the best-informed scientists in the United States on seismic disturbances, dictated the following statement:
“The earthquake which brought ruin to so many in San Francisco was caused by an invisible settling or breaking in of the earth’s crust somewhere not many miles from that city. It is not very likely that the earthquake had any connection with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
“Many of the mountains in that part of the world are ‘still young,’ as the geologist would say. They are as much unlike the old, gentle and softened Blue ridge as a great, overgrown, husky boy is unlike a fully developed and hardened man.
“They are expanding in some places and contracting in others, tho this process is so slow that the changes cannot be measured in many generations. But every now and then something gives way in the bowels of the earth, an immense mass settles, and tho the fall may only be a foot or a few inches, the jar is so tremendous that great buildings miles distant are shaken like jackstraws.“This is probably the explanation for the cause of the terrible catastrophe in San Francisco. If the earthquake had happened in Venezuela or in the West Indies we would, with good reason, attribute it to volcanic agencies, but San Francisco is too far away from volcanic influences. It has been noticed that volcanic disturbances of any kind are usually accompanied by magnetic or electrical disturbances, which, in waves, encircle the earth.”
Shock Felt in Great Britain
London, April 19. — Professor Milne, the leading expert on seismic phenomena, says his seismograph at Shide, Isle of Wight, recorded the San Francisco earthquake with such clearness that he was able to almost immediately ask where the disturbance occured.
Asked his opinion as to the causes of the catastrophe, Milne said:
“The first question to be asked is of astronomers, for it is generally believed that earthquakes are to a large extent caused by the failure of the earth to swing perfectly true. Sometimes it gets a little bit off its course and the reaction in swinging back to its true position involves a tremendous strain on the center. This is said to be so great that it results in twisting or breaking earth’s crust. Therefore, to find the present disturbance you must get astronomers to tell you if they have noticed any deviation in the earth’s axis within the past few days. The recent eruption of Vesuvius is probably due to the same cause.”
