1906 San Francisco earthquake

Earthquake in California San Francisco earthquake San Francisco fire the 1989 earthquake 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake the 2014 earthquake 2014 South Napa earthquake the 1851 fire San Francisco Fire of 1851 February 2021 October 2024 1906 San Francisco earthquake 1906-04-18 13:12:27 16957905 official19060418131226300_12 1906 4 18 05:12:27 (PST) USA California 1 California 40.80 -124.16 100 Eureka top Green pog.svg California 41.22 -122.27 100 Dunsmuir Green pog.svg California 39.74 -121.84 100 Chico left Green pog.svg California 39.34 -120.20 100 Truckee Green pog.svg California 38.45 -122.7 100 Santa Rosa Green pog.svg California 36.68 -121.66 100 Salinas left Green pog.svg California 35.37 -119.02 100 Bakersfield Green pog.svg California 36.75 -119.77 100 Fresno Green pog.svg California 35.47 -120.65 100 Paso Robles left Green pog.svg California 34.03 -118.49 100 Santa Monica left Green pog.svg California 33.72 -116.22 100 Indio left Green pog.svg California 37.75 -122.55 Bullseye1.png 40 top 290 center 7.9 Mw 5 mi onhttp://alomax.free.fr/posters/1906-focus/ Location of the Focal Region and Hypocenter of the California Earthquake of April 18, 1906 alomax.free.fr XI North Coast San Francisco Bay Area Central Coast United States 37.75 -122.55 type:event_region:US-CA inline,title Strike-slip San Andreas Fault Yes 700–3,000+ Post-and-Grant-Avenue-Look.jpg Ruins in the vicinity of Post and Grant Avenue A magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck the coast of Northern California at 05:12 am Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. With a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), it created high-intensity shaking from Eureka on the North Coast to the Salinas Valley, an agricultural region to the south of the San Francisco Bay Area. Extensive fires soon broke out in San Francisco and lasted for several days. More than 3,000 people died and over 80% of the city was destroyed. The event is remembered as the deadliest earthquake in the history of the United States. The death toll remains the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California's history and high on the list of worst American disasters, natural or man-made. In 2005, footage of the event was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". Tectonic setting The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that forms part of the tectonic boundary between the Pacific plate and the North American plate. The strike-slip fault is characterized by mainly lateral motion in a dextral sense, where the western (Pacific) plate moves northward relative to the eastern (North American) plate. This fault runs the length of California from the Salton Sea in the south to Cape Mendocino in the north, a distance of about 810 mi km. The maximum observed surface displacement was about 20 feet (6 m); geodetic measurements show displacements of up to 28 feet (8.5 m).1906 San Francisco Quake: How large was the offset?; https://web.archive.org/web/20161222063303/http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/18april/offset.php December 22, 2016 USGS Earthquake Hazards Program — Northern California. Retrieved September 3, 2016 Earthquake thumb|A USGS ShakeMap showing the earthquake's intensity thumb|The slip on the San Andreas Fault which caused the earthquake was visible in Wrights Tunnel along the South Pacific Coast Railroad after the earthquake, with the north tunnel portal in the background and Wrights, California, just outside of the portal A strong foreshock preceded the main shock by about 20 to 25 seconds, and the strong shaking of the main shock lasted about 42 seconds. The 1906 earthquake preceded the development of the Richter scale, but the most widely accepted estimate on the modern moment magnitude scale is 7.9,http://seismo.berkeley.edu/faq/1906_0.html Where Can I Learn More About the 1906 Earthquake? January 28, 2008 Berkeley Seismological Laboratory https://web.archive.org/web/20080327145305/http://seismo.berkeley.edu/faq/1906_0.html March 27, 2008 dead with proposed values from 7.7 to 8.3.Strain accumulation and release mechanism of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Thatcher Wayne December 10, 1975 Journal of Geophysical Research 10.1029/JB080i035p04862 1975JGR....80.4862T 80 35 4862–4872 Severe deformations in the Earth's crust took place both before and after the earthquake's impact. Accumulated strain on the faults in the system was relieved during the earthquake, which caused damage along a 450 km mi mid -long us flip segment of the San Andreas plate boundary. The 1906 rupture propagated both northward and southward for a total of 296 mi km,1906 Earthquake: How long was the 1906 Crack?; https://web.archive.org/web/20081006171016/http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/info/1906/howlong.html October 6, 2008 USGS Earthquake Hazards Program – Northern California. Retrieved September 3, 2006 with shaking felt from Oregon to Los Angeles, and as far inland as central Nevada.Christine Gibson; https://web.archive.org/web/20101205074823/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/4/2006_4_26.shtml December 5, 2010 "Our 10 Greatest Natural Disasters," American Heritage, Aug./Sept. 2006. Before the 1906 quake there were decades of minor earthquakes – more than at any other time in the historical record for northern California. Previously interpreted as precursory activity to the 1906 earthquake, they have been found to have a strong seasonal pattern and are now believed to be caused by large seasonal sediment loads in coastal bays that overlie faults, erosion sediments left over from hydraulic mining in the later years of the California gold rush.10.1007/PL00001268 Seasonal Seismicity of Northern California Before the Great 1906 Earthquake 2002 Westaway R. Pure and Applied Geophysics 159 1–3 7–62 2002PApGe.159....7W For years, the epicenter of the quake was assumed to be near the town of Olema, in the Point Reyes area of Marin County, due to local earth displacement measurements. In the 1960s, a seismologist at UC Berkeley proposed that the epicenter was more likely offshore of San Francisco, to the northwest of the Golden Gate. The most recent analyses support an offshore location for the epicenter, although significant uncertainty remains. An offshore epicenter is supported by the occurrence of a local tsunami recorded by a tide gauge at the San Francisco Presidio; the wave had an amplitude of approximately 3 in cm and an approximate period of 4045 minutes.Tsunami Record from the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake; https://web.archive.org/web/20190131164851/https://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/tsunami/1906.html January 31, 2019 , United States Geological Survey, 2008 Analysis of triangulation data before and after the earthquake strongly suggests that the rupture along the San Andreas Fault was about 500 km mi us flip in length, in agreement with observed intensity data. The available seismological data support a significantly shorter rupture length, but these observations can be reconciled by allowing propagation at speeds above the S-wave velocity (supershear). Supershear propagation has now been recognized for many earthquakes associated with strike-slip faulting.Song S.G Beroza G.C. Segall P. A Unified Source Model for the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake https://pangea.stanford.edu/cdfm/sites/default/files/pubs/song2008.pdf Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 98 2 823–831 10.1785/0120060402 2008 2008BuSSA..98..823S In 2019, using an old photograph and a recorded eyewitness account, researchers were able to refine the location of the hypocenter of the earthquake as offshore from San Francisco or near San Juan Bautista, confirming previous estimates.https://gizmodo.com/how-scientists-used-a-1906-photo-to-find-the-center-of-1832208787 How Scientists Used a 1906 Photo to Find the Center of San Francisco's Most Infamous Earthquake Gizmodo January 30, 2019 Intensity The shaking intensity as described on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale reached XI (Extreme) in San Francisco and areas to the north like Santa Rosa where destruction was devastating. The most important characteristic of the shaking intensity noted in Andrew Lawson's 1908 report was the clear correlation of intensity with underlying geologic conditions. Areas situated in sediment-filled valleys sustained stronger shaking than nearby bedrock sites, and the strongest shaking occurred in areas of former bay where soil liquefaction had occurred. Modern seismic-zonation practice accounts for the differences in hazard posed by varying geologic conditions.http://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/shzp/Pages/article10.aspx California Geological Survey – Seismic Hazards Zonation Program – Seismic Hazards Mapping regulations January 18, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20150727234639/http://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/shzp/Pages/article10.aspx July 27, 2015 dead Aftershocks The main shock was followed by many aftershocks and some remotely triggered events. As with the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake, there were fewer aftershocks than would have been expected for a shock of that size. Very few of them were located along the trace of the 1906 rupture, tending to concentrate near the ends of the rupture or on other structures away from the San Andreas Fault, such as the Hayward Fault. The only aftershock in the first few days of near I yes 5 or greater occurred near Santa Cruz at 14:28 PST on April 18, with a magnitude of about 4.9 M. The largest aftershock happened at 01:10 PST on April 23, west of Eureka with an estimated magnitude of about 6.7 I, with another of the same size more than three years later at 22:45 PST on October 28 near Cape Mendocino.Meltzner A.J. Wald D.J. David J. Wald 2003 Aftershocks and Triggered Events of the Great 1906 California Earthquake https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/33111939.pdf dead Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 93 5 2160–2186 2003BuSSA..93.2160M 10.1785/0120020033 128704816 https://web.archive.org/web/20211011074207/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/33111939.pdf October 11, 2021 July 6, 2020 Remotely triggered events included an earthquake swarm in the Imperial Valley area, which culminated in an earthquake of about 6.1 I at 16:30 PST on April 18, 1906. Another event of this type occurred at 12:31 PST on April 19, 1906, with an estimated magnitude of about 5.0 I, and an epicenter beneath Santa Monica Bay. Damage center 850 SanFranHouses06.JPG Damaged houses on Howard Street 19060419 San Francisco Earthquake - The New York Times.jpg Seismographs on the U.S. east coast recorded the earthquake some 19 minutes later. Some early death estimates exceeded 500.Over 500 Dead; $200,000,000 lost in San Francisco Earthquake / All San Francisco May Burn https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:19060419_San_Francisco_Earthquake_-_The_New_York_Times.jpg The New York Times April 19, 1906 1 Early death counts ranged from 375William Bronson, The Earth Shook, the Sky Burned (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1996) to over 500. However, hundreds of fatalities in Chinatown went ignored and unrecorded. The total number of deaths is still uncertain, but various reports presented a range of 700–3,000+. In 2005, the city's Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in support of a resolution written by novelist James Dalessandro ("1906") and city historian Gladys Hansen ("Denial of Disaster") to recognize the figure of 3,000+ as the official total.Casualties and Damage after the 1906 earthquake USGS Earthquake Hazards Program – Northern California. Retrieved September 4, 2006Gladys C. Hansen Emmet Condon David Fowler Denial of Disaster https://books.google.com/books?id=ZCu1AAAACAAJ 1989 Cameron and Company 978-0-918684-33-2 Most of the deaths occurred within San Francisco, but 189 were reported elsewhere in the Bay Area; nearby cities such as Santa Rosa and San Jose also suffered severe damage. Between 227,000 and 300,000 people were left homeless out of a population of about 410,000; half of those who evacuated fled across the bay to Oakland and Berkeley. Newspapers described Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, the Panhandle and the beaches between Ingleside and North Beach as covered with makeshift tents. More than two years later, many of these refugee camps were still in operation.Displays at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Museum in Sausalito, California Selected Mercalli intensities MMI Locations11 wikitable San Francisco, Santa Rosa10 wikitable Sebastopol, San Bruno9 wikitable San Jose, Point Arena8 wikitable Eureka, Salinas7 wikitable Truckee, Parkfield6 wikitable Willows, Fresno5 wikitable Chico, Paso Robles4 wikitable Dunsmuir, Bakersfield3 wikitable Santa Monica, Indio U.S. Earthquake Intensity Database, NGDC The earthquake and fire left long-standing and significant pressures on the development of California. At the time of the disaster, San Francisco had been the ninth-largest city in the United States and the largest on the West Coast. Over a period of 60 years, the city had become the financial, trade, and cultural center of the West, operating the busiest port on the West Coast. It was the "gateway to the Pacific", through which growing U.S. economic and military power was projected into the Pacific and Asia. Over 80% of the city was destroyed by the earthquake and fire. Though San Francisco rebuilt quickly, the disaster diverted trade, industry, and population growth south to Los Angeles,April 2019 which during the 20th century became the largest and most important urban area in the West. Many of the city's leading poets and writers retreated to Carmel-by-the-Sea where, as "The Barness", they established the arts colony reputation that continues today.http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/5aa/5aa300.htm The Carmel Monterey Peninsula Art Colony: A History Barbara J. Klein Traditional Fine Arts Organization August 1, 2009 live https://web.archive.org/web/20090827084926/http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/5aa/5aa300.htm August 27, 2009 The 1908 Lawson Report, a study of the 1906 quake led and edited by Professor Andrew Lawson of the University of California, showed that the same San Andreas Fault which had caused the disaster in San Francisco ran close to Los Angeles as well.https://archive.org/details/californiaearth00reidgoog The California Earthquake of April 18, 1906: Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission ... Lawson Andrew Cowper Reid Harry Fielding Carnegie Institution of Washington 1908 25 The earthquake was the first natural disaster of its magnitude to be documented by photography and motion picture footage and occurred at a time when the science of seismology was blossoming.1906 Marked the Dawn of the Scientific Revolution https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/events/1906calif/18april/revolution.php U.S.G.S. - Earthquake Hazards Program: 1906 Earthquake Survivor accounts Writing from San Francisco on April 23, five days after the earthquake, resident John W. Nourse described the scene to his family in Indiana: woken at quarter past five by shaking that made the house "seem like it would break all to pieces," he looked out to see a large brick building completely destroyed in seconds, with fires visible simultaneously to the right, front, and left. Grabbing the baby's buggy, he and his wife Lena fled to Market Street, which he described as a terrible sight. Whole blocks reduced to masses of ruins, City Hall a complete wreck. He left his wife and baby at the mission and returned to try to save their belongings, but found the whole part of the city burning. He and his family spent the night in the hills, watching twelve and twenty story buildings burning and falling, "a sight no one can describe." He noted that some streets had sunk several feet while others had risen, the city was under martial law, and provisions were beginning to arrive from surrounding towns. "In traveling over the city it looks like there is not a building but what is more or less damaged," he wrote.May 4, 1906 In the Earthquake: Letter from John W. Nourse Giving His Experience https://newspaperarchive.com/other-clipping-may-04-1906-5723414/ Clinton Weekly Clintonian Clinton, Indiana 1 NewspaperARCHIVE.com A traveler passing through San Francisco ten days after the earthquake, Mrs. C. C. Baughman of LeMars, Iowa, described a stove placed in front of every house, residents were not permitted to cook indoors, and Market Street sunken several feet in places, with one location four blocks from the Ferry five feet lower than the sidewalk and the cable car rails warped and twisted. She observed soldiers with blue coats throughout the begrimed crowds, groups of listless dazed men in the suburbs, and frame buildings near Valencia Street completely shattered within a radius of several blocks. "The sights of the ruins are awful," she wrote, "and the scenes that transpired there during the terrible catastrophe are beyond the description of either tongue or pen." She and her husband, who had planned to settle permanently in California, left with "no desire to locate there permanently."May 10, 1906 Interesting Earthquake Letter https://newspaperarchive.com/other-clipping-may-10-1906-5723424/ O'Brien County Bell Primghar, Iowa 5 NewspaperARCHIVE.com Writing from Boulder Creek, eighty miles south of San Francisco, former journalist Mathias Forestburg described being violently awakened by the shaking, the house rocking like a boat with timbers creaking and everything thrown to the floor. He spent the morning dismantling a cracked chimney that was balanced on three bricks. One more aftershock would have brought it down and demolished the house. He reported continual shaking every day and night since the earthquake, keeping the community on constant alert, and noted that all business had stopped and all who could afford to leave were going east.May 9, 1906 Letter from the Earthquake Country https://newspaperarchive.com/other-clipping-may-09-1906-5723435/ Fargo Forum and Daily Republican Fargo, North Dakota 3 NewspaperARCHIVE.com The most immediate firsthand account came from Lewis A. Spitzer of San Jose, who wrote to his brother-in-law in Virginia at midnight on the day of the earthquake itself. Spitzer had been staying at a mineral spring in the mountains the previous night; waking just before 5 AM, he was thrown against the wall at 5:15 as the shock struck while he was putting a pan of water on the stove. Electric cars had stopped running and he hired a farmer to bring him home by buggy. He found his house standing with only cracked plaster, but described San Jose as "in ruins. Fine business houses flat on the ground" and San Francisco as nearly all in ruins and in flames. His son-in-law had arrived from San Francisco reporting that Spitzer's son and his wife and baby appeared to have escaped safely, but the family could not reach them. The streets were full of people camping in tents, some without tents, afraid to go indoors. "I have seen many heart rending scenes in my life," he wrote, "but never any such a terrible scene as this. In my opinion it will take fifty years for this State to recover from this awful affair."April 26, 1906 Letter from Scene of Earthquake https://newspaperarchive.com/other-clipping-apr-26-1906-5723456/ The Shenandoah Valley New Market, Virginia 3 NewspaperARCHIVE.com Other cities Although the impact of the earthquake on San Francisco was the most famous, the earthquake also inflicted considerable damage on several other cities. These include San Jose and Santa Rosa, the entire downtown of which was essentially destroyed."A Dreadful Catastrophe Visits Santa Rosa" Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, California, April 19, 1906. Retrieved February 23, 2015.http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb6000084t/?query=santa+rosa&query-join=or&brand=eqf Sta. Rosa [i.e. Santa Rosa] Courthouse. content.cdlib.orghttp://content.cdlib.org/search?brand=eqf&style=eqf&text-join=or&fieldList=text+keywords&relation=bancroft.berkeley.edu+collections+earthquakeandfire&keyword=santa+rosa&publisher= The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire content.cdlib.org C. A. Duffy of Owensboro, Kentucky, who had been staying at the St. Rose Hotel in Santa Rosa, reported being trapped for five hours in the ruins before rescuers reached him. He finally made his location known by poking a lath through a hole left by a falling steam pipe. Duffy estimated that about 300 people were killed in the destruction of the town's three hotels alone and not less than 500 in the whole town, that the entire business section collapsed to the ground in approximately five minutes, and that fire subsequently started at each end of town simultaneously and burned toward the middle. He described seeing two arms protruding from the debris waving frantically before the flames swept over them: "The sight sickened me and I turned away."April 21, 1906 Sickening Sight—Man Escapes from Santa Rosa and Tells Harrowing Tale https://newspaperarchive.com/other-clipping-apr-21-1906-5686351/ Grapevine Sun Grapevine, Texas 2 NewspaperARCHIVE.com Fires Subsequent fires thumb|Arnold Genthe's photograph, looking toward the fire on Sacramento Street As damaging as the earthquake and its aftershocks were, the fires that burned out of control afterward were far more destructive.Over 500 Dead, $200,000,000 Lost in San Francisco Earthquake https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0418.html Earthquake and fire today 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. The New York Times April 18, 1906 April 19, 2008 It has been estimated that at least 80%, and at most 95%, of the total destruction was the result of the subsequent fires.Tobriner Stephen April 1, 2006 An EERI Reconnaissance Report: Damage to San Francisco in the 1906 Earthquake—A Centennial Perspective http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1193/1.2186693 Earthquake Spectra 22 2S 11–41 10.1193/1.2186693 2006EarSp..22...11T 8755-2930 subscription Within three days,http://mceer.buffalo.edu/1906_Earthquake/san-francisco-earthquake.asp The Great 1906 Earthquake & Fires of San Francisco February 3, 2014 February 4, 2014 https://web.archive.org/web/20140204122356/http://mceer.buffalo.edu/1906_earthquake/san-francisco-earthquake.asp dead over 30 fires, that were caused by ruptured gas mains, destroyed approximately 25,000 buildings on 490 city blocks. The fires cost an estimated $350 million at the time (equivalent to $US-GDP .35 1906 1 billion in US-GDP).US-GDP The Ham and EggsView of fires—including Ham and Eggs fire, right center—looking east along Fell St. City Hall, center. https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/hb167nb1qr/ calisphere January 1, 2023 1906 fire, in the morning on the 18th, at Hayes and Gough Streets,DRC7201: the prevention of natural disasters https://authors.library.caltech.edu/26444/1/DRC7201.pdf authors.library.caltech.edu January 1, 2023 in Hayes Valley, was started by a woman who lit her stove to prepare breakfast, unaware of the badly damaged chimney,Ham and Eggs fire. Hayes between Franklin and Gough. (Started because a woman insisted on getting breakfast for her husband.) :34 https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf3000076f/?brand=oac4&layout=metadata oac.cdlib.org January 1, 2023The Dangers of Cooking After a Quake: The Ham and Eggs Fire https://hoodline.com/2013/04/the-dangers-of-cooking-after-a-quake-the-ham-and-eggs-fire/ January 1, 2023 hoodline April 18, 2013 destroying a 30-block area,Earthquake Fires https://www.calfireprevention.org/earthquake-fires/ California Fire Prevention Organization January 1, 2023 including a college, the Hall of Records and City Hall.Earthquake Fire: San Francisco, April 1906 https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a1964/4219864/ January 1, 2023 Popular Mechanics July 30, 2007The Old Bay Margins https://www.ncgeolsoc.org/past-field-trips/the-old-bay-margins/ Northern California Geological Society January 1, 2023 January 1, 2023 https://web.archive.org/web/20230101161747/https://www.ncgeolsoc.org/past-field-trips/the-old-bay-margins/ deadBoehm Lisa Krissoff The Great San Francisco Earthquake: One of America's Worst Urban Disasters (review) Film & History 2007 37 1 87–88 10.1353/flm.2007.0003 162254376 https://muse.jhu.edu/article/215912 January 1, 2023 subscriptionHam and Eggs Fire Silver Twin Hydrant https://hayesvalleysf.org/ham-and-eggs-fire-silver-twin-hydrant/2015/04/ Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association January 1, 2023 April 18, 2015Bhalerao Camille 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Facts & Lessons https://blog.jumpstartinsurance.com/1906-san-francisco-earthquake-lessons-from-history/ Blog Jumpstart insurance January 1, 2023 May 9, 2021 Some of the fires were started when San Francisco Fire Department firefighters, untrained in the use of dynamite, attempted to demolish buildings to create firebreaks. The dynamited buildings often caught fire. The city's fire chief, Dennis T. Sullivan, who would have been responsible for coordinating firefighting efforts, had died from injuries sustained in the initial quake.Fire Following Earthquake 2005 ASCE, NFPA Reston, Virginia 9780784407394 http://www.asce.org/Product.aspx?id=2147485909&productid=5362 Charles Scawthorn John Eidinger Anshel Schiff dead https://web.archive.org/web/20130928111244/http://www.asce.org/Product.aspx?id=2147485909&productid=5362 September 28, 2013 In total, the fires burned for four days and nights. Sfearthquake3b.jpg 1907 Geological Survey Map of San Francisco after 1906 Earthquake - Geographicus - SanFrancisco-humphrey-1907.jpg Burning of the Mission District (left) and a map showing the extent of the fire Most of the destruction in the city was attributed to the fires, since widespread practice by insurers was to indemnify San Francisco properties from fire but not from earthquake damage. A Boulder Creek resident writing to friends in North Dakota five days after the earthquake confirmed the same practice from personal experience, noting that insurance companies "will insure against fire, will not insure against earthquakes." Some property owners deliberately set fire to damaged properties to claim them on their insurance. Captain Leonard D. Wildman of the U.S. Army Signal Corpshttp://www.nps.gov/archive/prsf/history/1906eq/sigcorps.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20061231064223/http://www.nps.gov/archive/prsf/history/1906eq/sigcorps.htm dead December 31, 2006 NPS Signal Corps History reported that he "was stopped by a fireman who told me that people in that neighborhood were firing their houses...they were told that they would not get their insurance on buildings damaged by the earthquake unless they were damaged by fire".http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906.2/arson.html 1906 Earthquake Arson Fires sfmuseum.org One landmark building lost in the fire was the Palace Hotel, subsequently rebuilt, which had many famous visitors including royalty and celebrated performers. It was constructed in 1875 primarily financed by Bank of California co-founder William Ralston, the "man who built San Francisco." In April 1906, the tenor Enrico Caruso and members of the Metropolitan Opera Company came to San Francisco to give a series of performances at the Grand Opera House. The night after Caruso's performance in Carmen, the tenor was awakened in the early morning in his Palace Hotel suite by a strong jolt. Clutching an autographed photo of President Theodore Roosevelt, Caruso made an effort to get out of the city, first by boat and then by train, and vowed never to return. The Metropolitan Opera Company lost all of its traveling sets and costumes.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/04/27/101878127.pdf NY Times Obituary for Heinrich Conrad, April 27, 1909 The Story of An Eyewitness by Jack London - read by Elaine Hamby for LibriVox's Short Nonfiction Collection Vol. 006 (2007).ogg "The Story of An Eyewitness"by Jack LondonRead by Elaine Hamby for LibriVox Audio 00:18:06 (full text) right speech 70px Some of the greatest losses from fire were in scientific laboratories. Alice Eastwood, the curator of botany at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, is credited with saving the entire plant type specimen collection of the Academy before the remainder of the largest botanical collection in the western United States was destroyed in the fire.Alice Eastwood, The Coniferae of the Santa Lucia MountainsDouble Cone Quarterly, Fall Equinox, volume VII, Number 3 (2004) The entire laboratory and all the records of Benjamin R. Jacobs, a biochemist who was researching the nutrition of everyday foods, were destroyed.10.1021/ie50129a023 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Laboratory Control of Wheat Flour Milling 1920 Jacobs Benjamin R. Rask Olaf S. 12 9 899–903 The original California flag used in the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt at Sonoma, stored in a state building in San Francisco, was also destroyed in the fire.http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist6/toddflag.html California Bear Flag – 1846 sfmuseum.org Response thumb|Soldiers allegedly looting during the fire The city's fire chief, Dennis T. Sullivan, was gravely injured when the earthquake first struck and later died from his injuries.Nash Jay Robert Jay Robert Nash Darkest Hours 492 Sullivan and his wife had been sleeping in the engine house adjoining the California Hotel on Bush Street when bricks crashed through the roof.April 19, 1906 The Buildings Destroyed https://newspaperarchive.com/other-clipping-apr-19-1906-5686336/ New York Times New York, New York 1 NewspaperARCHIVE.com The interim fire chief sent an urgent request to the Presidio for dynamite. General Frederick Funston had already decided that the situation required the use of federal troops. Telephoning a San Francisco Police Department officer, he sent word to Mayor Eugene Schmitz of his decision to assist and then ordered federal troops from nearby Angel Island to mobilize and enter the city. Explosives were ferried across the bay from the California Powder Works in what is now Hercules.April 2019 During the first few days, soldiers provided valuable services like patrolling streets to discourage looting and guarding buildings such as the U.S. Mint, post office, and county jail. They aided the fire department in dynamiting to demolish buildings in the path of the fires. The Army also became responsible for feeding, sheltering, and clothing the tens of thousands of displaced residents of the city. Under the command of Funston's superior, Major General Adolphus Greely, Commanding Officer of the Pacific Division, over 4,000 federal troops saw service during the emergency. Police officers, firefighters, and soldiers would regularly commandeer passing civilians for work details to remove rubble and assist in rescues. On July 1, 1906, non-military authorities assumed responsibility for relief efforts, and the Army withdrew from the city. thumb|upright=0.8|Mayor Schmitz's proclamation authorizing law enforcement to shoot looters on sight, dated April 18, 1906 On April 18, in response to riots among evacuees and looting, Mayor Schmitz issued and ordered posted a proclamation that "The Federal Troops, the members of the Regular Police Force and all Special Police Officers have been authorized by me to kill any and all persons found engaged in Looting or in the Commission of Any Other Crime".http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906.2/killproc.html Mayor Eugene Schmitz's Famed "Shoot-to-Kill" Order Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco September 3, 2006 https://web.archive.org/web/20060823093603/http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906.2/killproc.html August 23, 2006 dead Accusations of soldiers engaging in looting also surfaced.http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906.2/wolfe.html Looting Claims Against the U.S. Army Following the 1906 Earthquake Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco March 26, 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20080328150549/http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906.2/wolfe.html March 28, 2008 dead Retired Captain Edward Ord of the 22nd Infantry Regiment was appointed a special police officer by Schmitz and liaised with Greely for relief work with the 22nd Infantry and other military units involved in the emergency. Ord later wrote a long letterOctober 7, 2009 http://www.library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/cl146.htm Ord Family Papers Variouswork=Georgetown University Libraries Special Collections Georgetown University Library, 37th and N Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20057 2006 https://web.archive.org/web/20100614112237/http://www.library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/cl146.htm June 14, 2010 dead to his mother on April 20 regarding Schmitz's "Shoot-to-Kill" order and some "despicable" behavior of certain soldiers of the 22nd Infantry who were looting. He also made it clear that the majority of soldiers served the community well. Aftermath thumb|left|Evacuees fleeing the city thumb|left|thumbtime=|Film shot on April 18, 1906, of the wreckage Property losses from the disaster have been estimated to be more than $400 million in 1906 dollars.Casualties and damage after the 1906 Earthquake https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/events/1906calif/18april/casualties.php United States Geological Survey This is equivalent to $US-GDP 400000000 1906 in US-GDP dollars. An insurance industry source tallies insured losses at $235 million, the equivalent to $US-GDP 235000000 1906 in US-GDP dollars.USBrady, Matt. "1906 Quake Shook Up Insurance Industry Worldwide." National Underwriter/P&C [New York] April 18, 2006: 12–16. Print. Political and business leaders strongly downplayed the effects of the earthquake, fearing loss of outside investment in the city which was badly needed to rebuild."The Great San Francisco Earthquake & Fires of 1906." The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Web. February 16, 2015. In his first public statement, California Governor George Pardee emphasized the need to rebuild quickly: "This is not the first time that San Francisco has been destroyed by fire, I have not the slightest doubt that the City by the Golden Gate will be speedily rebuilt, and will, almost before we know it, resume her former great activity".San Francisco History; https://web.archive.org/web/20150924100838/http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/1906/06nsfmart.htm September 24, 2015 The New San Francisco Magazine May 1906 The earthquake is not even mentioned in the statement. Fatality and monetary damage estimates were manipulated.The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906; https://web.archive.org/web/20070609071907/http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9539/9539.ch01.html June 9, 2007 Philip L. Fradkin Almost immediately after the quake (and even during the disaster), planning and reconstruction plans were hatched to quickly rebuild the city. Rebuilding funds were immediately tied up by the fact that virtually all the major banks had been sites of the conflagration, requiring a lengthy wait of seven to ten days before their fire-proof vaults could cool sufficiently to be safely opened. The Bank of Italy (now Bank of America) had evacuated its funds and was able to provide liquidity in the immediate aftermath. Its president also immediately chartered and financed the sending of two ships to return with shiploads of lumber from Washington and Oregon mills which provided the initial reconstruction materials and surge.April 2019 In an article written in 1913, John C. Branner, who was the first to begin study of the San Andreas fault in 1891San Andreas Fault: Cajon Pass to Wallace Creek, South Coast Geological Society, 1989, Vol. 1, p. 4 complained that the Federal Government of the United States had not conducted the serious studies that were needed to gather data about earthquakes on the west coast. He said public discussion was being stifled by fears that acknowledgement of earthquakes would drive away business and investors, and that geologists were told not to gather information about the 1906 earthquake, and certainly to not publish it. Some people went as far as to deny that an earthquake had happened. Branner argued that preparation for earthquakes was possible and necessary:Earthquakes and structural engineering The only way we know of to deal successfully with any natural phenomenon is to get acquainted with it, to find out all we can about it, and thus to meet it on its own grounds. That is the way mankind has succeeded thus far, and it is safe to conclude that it is the only way it will ever succeed. Eleven days after the earthquake a rare Sunday baseball game was played in New York City (which would not allow regular Sunday baseball until 1919) between the Highlanders (soon to be the Yankees) and the Philadelphia Athletics to raise money for quake survivors.Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game, John Thorn, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2011. William James, the pioneering American psychologist, was teaching at Stanford at the time of the earthquake and traveled into San Francisco to observe first-hand its aftermath. He was most impressed by the positive attitude of the survivors and the speed with which they improvised services and created order out of chaos.The Myth of the Panicking Disaster Victim Johann Hari March 18, 2011 https://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-myth-of-the-panicking_b_837440.html?ir=Impact April 3, 2011 HuffPost This formed the basis of the chapter "On some Mental Effects of the Earthquake" in his book Memories and Studies.William James William James Memories and Studies https://books.google.com/books?id=yooTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA209 April 3, 2011 1911 Longmans, Green 209– Reprint: 9780722220276. H. G. Wells had just arrived in New York on his first visit to America when he learned of the San Francisco earthquake. What struck him about the reaction of those around him was that "it does not seem to have affected any one with a sense of final destruction, with any foreboding of irreparable disaster. Every one is talking of it this afternoon, and no one is in the least degree dismayed. I have talked and listened in two clubs, watched people in cars and in the street, and one man is glad that Chinatown will be cleared out for good; another's chief solicitude is for Millet's Man with a Hoe. 'They'll cut it out of the frame,' he says, a little anxiously. 'Sure.' But there is no doubt anywhere that San Francisco can be rebuilt, larger, better, and soon. Just as there would be none at all if all this New York that has so obsessed me with its limitless bigness was itself a blazing ruin. I believe these people would more than half like the situation."H. G. Wells, The Future in America: A Search after Realities (New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1906), pp. 41–42. Reconstruction thumb|A view from the Ferry Building tower, southwest down on Market Street thumb|The Agassiz statue in front of the Zoology building, now building 420, Stanford University The earthquake was crucial in the development of the University of California, San Francisco and its medical facilities. Until 1906, the school faculty had provided care at the City-County Hospital (now the San Francisco General Hospital), but did not have a hospital of its own. Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, more than 40,000 people were relocated to a makeshift tent city in Golden Gate Park and were treated by the faculty of the Affiliated Colleges. This brought the school, which until then was located on the western outskirts of the city, in contact with significant population and fueled the commitment of the school towards civic responsibility and health care, increasing the momentum towards the construction of its own health facilities. In April 1907, one of the buildings was renovated for outpatient care with 75 beds. This created the need to train nursing students, and the UC Training School for Nurses was established, adding a fourth professional school to the Affiliated Colleges.1868–1898 – Introduction – A History of UCSF http://history.library.ucsf.edu/story.html history.library.ucsf.edu The grandeur of citywide reconstruction schemes required investment from Eastern monetary sources, hence the spin and de-emphasis of the earthquake, the promulgation of the tough new building codes, and subsequent reputation sensitive actions such as the official low death toll. One of the more famous and ambitious plans came from famed urban planner Daniel Burnham. His bold plan called for, among other proposals, Haussmann-style avenues, boulevards, arterial thoroughfares that radiated across the city, a massive civic center complex with classical structures, and what would have been the largest urban park in the world, stretching from Twin Peaks to Lake Merced with a large atheneum at its peak. But this plan was dismissed during the aftermath of the earthquake.April 2019 For example, real estate investors and other land owners were against the idea because of the large amount of land the city would have to purchase to realize such proposals.Blackford Mansel The Lost Dream: Business and City Planning on the Pacific Coast, 1890–1920 1993 Ohio State UP Columbus 978-0-8142-0589-1 51 While the original street grid was restored, many of Burnham's proposals inadvertently saw the light of day, such as a neoclassical civic center complex, wider streets, a preference of arterial thoroughfares, a subway under Market Street, a more people-friendly Fisherman's Wharf, and a monument to the city on Telegraph Hill, Coit Tower.April 2019 Limestone used to reconstruct city buildings was quarried at the nearby Rockaway Quarry.Historic Resource Study for Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Mateo County. https://www.nps.gov/goga/learn/historyculture/upload/san-mateo-hrs-part-iv-mori-point.pdf National Park Service August 4, 2023Limestone https://www.nps.gov/places/000/limestone.htm National Park Service August 4, 2023 City fathers likewise attempted at the time to eliminate the Chinese population and export Chinatown (and other poor populations) to the edge of the county where the Chinese could still contribute to the local taxbase.Hansen Gladys Gladys Hansen Relocation of Chinatown Following the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake http://www.sfmuseum.org/chin/relocate.html The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco Museum of the City of San Francisco February 14, 2015 March 2014 The Chinese occupants had other ideas and prevailed instead. Chinatown was rebuilt in the newer, modern, Western form that exists today. The destruction of City Hall and the Hall of Records enabled thousands of Chinese immigrants to claim residency and citizenship, creating a backdoor to the Chinese Exclusion Act, and bring in their relatives from China.Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906: Its Effects on Chinatown Chinese Historical Society of America. Retrieved December 2, 2006The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire; https://web.archive.org/web/20070930210023/http://www.historynet.com/magazines/american_history/3038306.html?page=5&c=y September 30, 2007 Niderost, Eric, American History, April 2006. Retrieved December 2, 2006 The earthquake was also responsible for the development of the Pacific Heights neighborhood. The immense power of the earthquake had destroyed almost all of the mansions on Nob Hill except for the James C. Flood Mansion. Others that had not been destroyed were dynamited by the Army forces aiding the firefighting efforts in attempts to create firebreaks. As one indirect result, the wealthy looked westward where the land was cheap and relatively undeveloped, and where there were better views. Constructing new mansions without reclaiming and clearing rubble simply sped attaining new homes in the tent city during the reconstruction.March 2016 Reconstruction was swift, and largely completed by 1915, in time for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition which celebrated the reconstruction of the city and its "rise from the ashes". Since 1915, the city has officially commemorated the disaster each year by gathering the remaining survivors at Lotta's Fountain, a fountain in the city's financial district that served as a meeting point during the disaster for people to look for loved ones and exchange information.April 2019 Housing thumb|upright|One of the 11 housing camps thumb|Restored earthquake relief cottages visible today in the Presidio thumb|A surviving earthquake relief cottage, now part of a private home The Army built 5,610 redwood and fir "relief houses" to accommodate 20,000 displaced people. The houses were designed by John McLaren, and were grouped in 11 camps, packed close to each other and rented to people for two dollars per month until rebuilding was completed. They were painted navy blue, partly to blend in with the site and partly because the military had large quantities of navy blue paint on hand. The camps had a peak population of 16,448 people, but by 1907 most people had moved out. The camps were then re-used as garages, storage spaces or shops. The cottages cost on average $100 to build. The $2 monthly rents went towards the full purchase price of $50. The last official refugee camp was closed on June 30, 1908.Fradkin, Philip L. The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906: How San Francisco Nearly Destroyed Itself. Berkeley: University of California, 2005. Print. p.225 Most of the cottages have been destroyed, but at least 30 survived.This map shows where 1906 earthquake shacks still exist in San Francisco today https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2021/earthquake-shacks-sf-map/ April 23, 2024 San Francisco Chronicle Of the remaining structures, there is a historically restored pair in the Presidio. Others have been built on as part of private homes, with a high concentration around the Bernal Heights neighborhood. One of the modest 720 sqft m2 on homes was purchased in 2006 for more than $600,000.Reality Times:; https://web.archive.org/web/20070428180408/http://realtytimes.com/rtapages/20060418_quakehistory.htm April 28, 2007 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Housing Is Valuable Piece of History by Blanche Evans A 2017 study found that the fire had the effect of increasing the share of land used for nonresidential purposes: "Overall, relative to unburned blocks, residential land shares on burned blocks fell while nonresidential land shares rose by 1931. The study also provides insight into what held the city back from making these changes before 1906: the presence of old residential buildings. In reconstruction, developers built relatively fewer of these buildings, and the majority of the reduction came through single-family houses. Aside from merely expanding nonresidential uses in many neighborhoods, the fire created economic opportunities in new areas, resulting in clusters of business activity that emerged only in the wake of the disaster. These effects of the fire still remain today, and thus large shocks can be sufficient catalysts for permanently reshaping urban settings."Siodla James Clean slate: Land-use changes in San Francisco after the 1906 disaster Explorations in Economic History 65 1 10.1016/j.eeh.2017.04.001 2017 Relief thumb|A derailed locomotive During the first few days after news of the disaster reached the rest of the world, relief efforts reached over $5,000,000,Morris, Charles ed. The San Francisco Calamity by Earthquake and Fire. Intro by Roger W. Lotchin. Philadelphia : J.C. Winston Co., 1906; Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2002. US 5,000,000 1906 -4 eq $. London raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. Individual citizens and businesses donated large sums of money for the relief effort: Standard Oil and Andrew Carnegie each gave $100,000; the Parliament of Canada made a special appropriation of $100,000; and even the Bank of Canada in Ottawa gave $25,000. The United States Congress quickly appropriated 2.5 million dollars for relief supplies which were immediately rushed to the area, including supplies for food kitchens and many thousands of tents that city dwellers would occupy the next several years.Strupp Christoph Dealing with Disaster: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9gd2v192 escholarship.org July 19, 2006 Institute of European Studies February 23, 2015 These relief efforts were not enough to get families on their feet again, and consequently the burden was placed on wealthier members of the city, who were reluctant to assist in the rebuilding of homes they were not responsible for. All residents were eligible for daily meals served from a number of communal soup kitchens, and citizens as far away as Idaho and Utah were known to send daily loaves of bread to San Francisco as relief supplies were coordinated by the railroads.Greeley A.W. Earthquake in California April 18, 1906 Washington Government Print Office Insurance payments Insurance companies, faced with staggering claims of $250 million,The New York Herald (European Edition) of April 21, 1906, p. 2. paid out between $235 million and $265 million on policyholders' claims, often for fire damage only, since shake damage from earthquakes was excluded from coverage under most policies.R. K. Mackenzie, The San Francisco earthquake & conflagration. Typoscript, Bancroft Library, Berkeley, 1907."Aetna At-A-Glance: Aetna History; https://web.archive.org/web/20061208010149/http://www.aetna.com/about/aetna/aag/history.html December 8, 2006 ", Aetna company information At least 137 insurance companies were directly involved and another 17 as reinsurers.For a list of these companies see Tilmann Röder, From Industrial to Legal Standardization, 1871–1914: Transnational Insurance Law and the Great San Francisco Earthquake (Brill Academic Publishers, 2011). Twenty companies went bankrupt. Lloyd's of London reports having paid all claims in full, more than $50 million,The role of Lloyd's in the reconstruction; https://web.archive.org/web/20070708195157/http://www.lloyds.com/About_Us/History/A_city_rebuilt_a_promise_intact/Lloyds_role/ July 8, 2007 Lloyd's of London. Retrieved December 6, 2006 thanks to the leadership of Cuthbert Heath. Insurance companies in Hartford, Connecticut, report paying every claim in full, with the Hartford Fire Insurance Company paying over $11 million and Aetna Insurance Company almost $3 million. The insurance payments heavily affected the international financial system. Gold transfers from European insurance companies to policyholders in San Francisco led to a rise in interest rates, subsequently to a lack of available loans and finally to the Knickerbocker Trust Company crisis of October 1907 which led to the Panic of 1907.Kerry A. Odell and Marc D. Weidenmier, Real Shock, Monetary Aftershock: The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and the Panic of 1907, The Journal of Economic History, 2005, vol. 64, issue 04, p. 1002–1027. After the 1906 earthquake, global discussion arose concerning a legally flawless exclusion of the earthquake hazard from fire insurance contracts. It was pressed ahead mainly by re-insurers. Their aim: a uniform solution to insurance payouts resulting from fires caused by earthquakes. Until 1910, a few countries, especially in Europe, followed the call for an exclusion of the earthquake hazard from all fire insurance contracts. In the U.S., the question was discussed differently. But the traumatized public reacted with fierce opposition. In the second half of 1909, the California State Legislature enacted the California Standard Form of Fire Insurance Policy, which did not contain any earthquake clause. Thus the state decided that insurers would have to pay again if another earthquake was followed by fires. Other earthquake-endangered countries followed the California example.See T. Röder, From Industrial to Legal Standardization, 1871–1914: Transnational Insurance Law and the Great San Francisco Earthquake (Brill Academic Publishers, 2011) and The Roots of the "New Law Merchant": How the international standardization of contracts and clauses changed business law; https://web.archive.org/web/20080422193715/http://www.rewi.hu-berlin.de/FHI/articles/0610roeder.htm April 22, 2008 Centennial commemorations The 1906 Centennial Alliance1906 Centennial Alliance was set up as a clearing-house for various centennial events commemorating the earthquake. Award presentations, religious services, a National Geographic TV movie,https://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/ https://web.archive.org/web/20060415105554/http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/greatquake/ dead National Geographic TV Shows, Specials & Documentaries April 15, 2006 National Geographic Channel a projection of fire onto the Coit Tower,projection of fire onto the Coit Tower; https://web.archive.org/web/20060421015357/http://www.sfcentennial.org/ April 21, 2006 memorials, and lectures were part of the commemorations. The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program issued a series of Internet documents,https://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/ series of Internet documents and the tourism industry promoted the 100th anniversary as well.https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news_index/travel_news.html https://web.archive.org/web/20060426050332/http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/02/travel_earthquake.html dead Travel News April 26, 2006 consumeraffairs.com Eleven survivors of the 1906 earthquake attended the centennial commemorations in 2006, including Irma Mae Weule (1899–2008), who was the oldest survivor of the quake at the time of her death in August 2008, aged 109.Nolte 1906 earthquake survivor Irma Mae Weule dies https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/1906-earthquake-survivor-Irma-Mae-Weule-dies-3199801.php San Francisco Chronicle August 16, 2008 August 17, 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20080920125913/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2008%2F08%2F15%2FBAQ712C258.DTL September 20, 2008 live Vivian Illing (1900–2009) was believed to be the second-oldest survivor at the time of her death, aged 108, leaving Herbert Hamrol (1903–2009) as the last known remaining survivor at the time of his death, aged 106. Another survivor, Libera Armstrong (1902–2007), attended the 2006 anniversary but died in 2007, aged 105.http://www.ancientfaces.com/person/libera-era-armstrong/85594268 Libera Era Armstrong (1902–2007) – Hayward, California AncientFaces ancientfaces.com July 6, 2014 Shortly after Hamrol's death, two additional survivors were discovered. William Del Monte, then 103, and Jeanette Scola Trapani (1902–2009),Jeanette Trapani obituary http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sfgate/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=137997169 December 31, 2009 January 2, 2010 106, stated that they stopped attending events commemorating the earthquake when it became too much trouble for them.San Francisco Chronicle, 2009-02-07, Calling any '06 San Francisco quake survivors Del Monte and another survivor, Rose Cliver (1902–2012), then 106, attended the earthquake reunion celebration on April 18, 2009, the 103rd anniversary of the earthquake.SF remembers great quake on 103rd anniversary http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/04/18/state/n173741D72.DTL&type=printable San Francisco Chronicle https://archive.today/20090721031953/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/04/18/state/n173741D72.DTL&type=printable July 21, 2009 dead June 24, 2009 Nancy Stoner Sage (1905–2010) died, aged 105, in Colorado just three days short of the 104th anniversary of the earthquake on April 18, 2010. Del Monte attended the event at Lotta's Fountain in 2010.https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Hundreds-gather-to-honor-victims-of-06-quake-3267005.php Hundreds gather to honor victims of '06 quake Carl Nolte April 19, 2010 San Francisco Chronicle 107-year-old George Quilici (1905–2012) died in May 2012,http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/santacruzsentinel/obituary.aspx?n=george-frank-quilici&pid=157938784 George Frank Quilici Obituary Santa Cruz Sentinel and 113-year-old Ruth Newman (1901–2015) in July 2015.https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/03/us/ruth-newman-a-survivor-of-the-1906-san-francisco-earthquake-dies-at-113.html Ruth Newman, a Survivor of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, Dies at 113 September 2, 2015 The New York Times Associated Press William Del Monte (1906–2016), who died 11 days shy of his 110th birthday, was thought to be the last survivor.https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2016-01-11/last-survivor-of-1906-san-francisco-earthquake-dies-at-109 Last survivor of 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire dies at 109 Bender Kristen J. January 11, 2016 U.S. News & World Report https://web.archive.org/web/20170706002050/https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2016-01-11/last-survivor-of-1906-san-francisco-earthquake-dies-at-109 July 6, 2017 live Associated Press In 2005 the National Film Registry added San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, April 18, 1906, a newsreel documentary made soon after the earthquake, to its list of American films worthy of preservation.Librarian of Congress Adds 25 Films to National Film Registry Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2005/05-262.html December 20, 2005 July 22, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20090809003213/http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2005/05-262.html August 9, 2009 live Willard Worden gallery Working to establish his career as a photographer in San Francisco, Willard Worden seized the opportunity to capture history in the making, recording scenes of the fire and its aftermath using a handheld film camera and a four-by-five-inch view camera with glass negatives; he also photographed damage to the Stanford University campus. The resulting work fed the general public's fascination for sensationalist content, but was also of interest to seismologists, architects, and urban planners, as evidenced by inclusion of his photos in The California Earthquake of April 18, 1906: Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission, published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC, in 1908. Worden's gelatin silver prints documenting the destruction were later collected by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Oakland Museum of California. After the destruction, all that remained of the Alban N. Towne mansion on Nob Hill were six marble columns and a lintel. When viewed from a certain angle, the empty porch perfectly framed the ruins of the smoldering City Hall. The haunting image became an icon of the 1906 earthquake, due largely to photographs by Worden. In 1909, the columns and lintel were relocated to Golden Gate Park, where, known as Portals of the Past, they became an enduring monument to the city's grief and a symbol of its endurance.Ganz, James A. Portals of the Past: The Photographs of Willard Worden, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2015, pp. 17 and 20. Panoramas The burning of San Francisco, April 18, 06, view from St. Francis Hotel.jpg 1000px San Francisco burning, view from St. Francis Hotel, at Union Square. Copyright, Pillsbury Pictures, 18 April 1906.https://loc.gov/pictures/resource/pan.6a01913/ The burning of San Francisco, April 18, [19]06, view from St. Francis Hotel Library of Congress 1906 Geary Street is in center, terminating at Market Street. The San Francisco Call's domed Call Building, is right-center, at Newspaper Row. Its wood interior burned, but its steel, concrete and stone frame survived. San Francisco 1906 fire 02 DA-SN-03-00958.JPEG 1000px San Francisco, from Twin Peaks, looking down at Eureka Valley, with Market Street, center foreground leading towards the now-previous City Hall dome ruins on left, and The San Francisco Call's domed Call Building on right, center background April 18–21, 1906 Panorama of San Francisco disaster LCCN2007660415.jpg 1000px A 160-degree panoramic view of damage across the city after the disaster in 1906. In the distance, some large buildings remain, but most smaller structures are reduced to piles of rubble, with some chimney stacks remaining. San Francisco 160-degree panorama, from Nob Hill, showing Telegraph Hill, Yerba Buena Island, Ferry Building tower, Fairmont Hotel, The San Francisco Call's domed Call Building, Potrero Hill, San Bruno Mountain, Twin Peaks, showing damage. Copyright, Kilborn & Burn, 31 May 1906.https://loc.gov/pictures/resource/pan.6a19976/ Panorama of San Francisco disaster Library of Congress 1906https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2007660415/ Panorama of San Francisco disaster Library of Congress 1906 San Francisco 1906 earthquake Panoramic View.jpg 800px Panoramic view of earthquake and fire damage, looking from Stanford Mansion site, Nob Hill, April 18–21, 1906. Note, from left to right (1) Yerba Buena Island, (2) Grace Cathedral, ...(20) the ruins of the now-previous City Hall dome at far right.https://loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.05595/ Ruins of San Francisco after earthquake and fire, April 18 – 21, 1906, view from Stanford Mansion site Library of Congress 1906 San Francisco in ruin edit2.jpg 1000px San Francisco in ruins, waterfront in foreground, with sunset over Golden Gate in background, looking from 2000 ft m above San Francisco Bay, by George R. Lawrence using kite aerial photography. Copyright May 28, 1906. Market Street leads directly away from Ferry Building tower, center foreground, towards Twin Peaks, center-left background.https://loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.07823/ Photograph of San Francisco in ruins from Lawrence Captive Airship, 2000 feet above San Francisco Bay overlooking water front. Sunset over Golden [Gat]e Library of Congress 1906Petterchak Janice A. Photography Genius: George R. Lawrence & 'The Hitherto Impossible' Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society Summer-2002 http://dig.lib.niu.edu/ISHS/ishs-2002summer/ishs-2002summer130.pdf March 20, 2009 132–147 2002 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20080905190551/http://dig.lib.niu.edu/ISHS/ishs-2002summer/ishs-2002summer130.pdf September 5, 2008http://robroy.dyndns.info/lawrence/kitelines97.html https://web.archive.org/web/20060928053322/http://robroy.dyndns.info/lawrence/kitelines97.html September 28, 2006 The Lawrence Captive Airship over San Francisco In popular culture Will Irwin, The City That Was, a series of 1906 articles for The Sun, in New York City, and later as a booklet.Will Irwin. The City That Was: A Requiem of Old San Francisco (from newspaper) (gutenberg.org free download)Will Irwin The City That Was: A Requiem of Old San Francisco 1906. New York: B. W. Huebsch, Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Library. 47 p. 671922810 (free download)review San Francisco, 1936 disaster movie presenting a fictionalized account, starring Clark Gable. The earthquake features in Tony Kushner's 1991 play Angels in America.https://www.sparknotes.com/drama/angels/symbols/ Angels in America: Symbols SparkNotes Following the earthquake, San Francisco is rebuilt and later renamed San Fransokyo in Disneys 2014 animated film Big Hero 6.Scott Watanabe, Big Hero 6 Art Director on Tumblr In her 2024 novel The Phoenix Crown, Kate Quinn weaves together the stories of women who survive the quake, including botanist Alice Eastwood. Caruso is also figured.April 2026 The earthquake is the setting for Earthquake in the Early Morning, a 2001 book in the children’s series Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osbourne.April 2026 The earthquake is a significant event in the 1975 children's historical novel Dragonwings by Laurence Yep.Yep Laurence 2000 Dragonwings Golden mountain chronicles New York HarperTrophy 978-0-06-440085-5 Mystery author Rhys Bowen's detective character Molly Murphy is nearly killed by the earthquake in her 2016 novel Time Of Fog And Fire, and spends most of the aftermath trying to reunite with her husband, Police Captain Daniel Sullivan. See also San Francisco Bay Area California Earth sciences Committee of Fifty (1906) Earthquake engineering List of disasters in the United States by death toll List of earthquakes in 1906 List of earthquakes in California List of earthquakes in the United States List of fires Notes Analysis of the tsunami generated by the Mw 7.8 1906 San Francisco earthquake E.L. Geist M.L. Zoback 1999 Geology 27 1 15–18 10.1130/0091-7613(1999)027<0015:aottgb>2.3.co;2 1999Geo....27...15G Surface Displacements in the 1906 San Francisco and 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquakes P. Segall M. Lisowski 1990 Science 250 1241–4 4985 10.1126/science.250.4985.1241 17829210 1990Sci...250.1241S 23913195 https://zenodo.org/record/1231002 Stover C.W. Coffman J.L. https://books.google.com/books?id=bY0KAQAAIAAJ Seismicity of the United States, 1568–1989 (Revised) U.S. Geological Survey professional paper 1527 1993 United States Government Printing Office 75 References Transactions. Paper No. 1056. The Effects of the San Francisco Earthquake of April 18th, 1906, on Engineering Constructions: Reports Of A General Committee And Of Six Special Committees Of The San Francisco Association Of Members Of The American Society Of Civil Engineers American Society of Civil Engineers American Society of Civil Engineers 1907 https://books.google.com/books?id=XyoIAQAAIAAJ August 15, 2009 Bronson William The Earth Shook, the Sky Burned https://archive.org/details/earthshookskybur00bron registration 1959 Doubleday Double Cone Quarterly, Fall Equinox, volume VII, Number 3 (2004). Earthquake in California, April 18, 1906. Special Report on the Relief Operations Conducted by the Military Authorities Greely Adolphus W. Adolphus Greely 1906 Government Printing Office Washington https://archive.org/details/earthquakeincal01divigoog August 15, 2009 The San Francisco Earthquake And Fire of April 18th, 1906 And Their Effects On Structures And Structural Materials Gilbert Grove Karl Grove Karl Gilbert Richard Lewis Humphrey John Stephen Sewell Frank Soule amp 1907 Government Printing Office Washington https://archive.org/details/sanfranciscoear00gilbgoog August 15, 2009 The San Francisco Earthquake And Fire: A Presentation of Facts And Resulting The Roebling Construction Company New York https://archive.org/details/sanfranciscoear00goog August 15, 2009 1906 The California Earthquake of 1906 Jordan David Starr David Starr Jordan John Casper Branner John Casper Branner Charles Derleth Jr. Stephen Taber F. Omari Harold W. Fairbanks Mary Hunter Austin Mary Hunter Austin 1907 A. M. Robertson San Francisco https://archive.org/details/californiaearth01fairgoog August 15, 2009 After Earthquake And Fire: A Reprint of the Articles And Editorial Comment Appearing in the Mining And Scientific Press Mining And Scientific Press T. A. Rickard G. K. Gilbert S. B. Christy 1907 Mining And Scientific Press San Francisco https://archive.org/details/afterearthquake01frangoog August 15, 2009 etal San Francisco Relief Survey: The Organization And Methods Of Relief Used After The Earthquake And Fire Of April 18, 1906 Russell Sage Foundation Russell Sage Foundation Charles J. O'Connor Francis H. McLean Helen Swett Artieda James Marvin Motley Jessica Peixotto Mary Roberts Coolidge 1907 Survey Associates, Inc. (New York), Wm. F. Fell Co. (Philadelphia) https://books.google.com/books?id=hSHJAAAAMAAJ August 15, 2009 The Water Supply Of San Francisco, California Before, During And After The Earthquake of April 18, 1906 and the Subsequent Conflagration Schussler Hermann Hermann Schussler 1907 Martin B. Brown Press New York https://books.google.com/books?id=CqgNAAAAYAAJ August 15, 2009 The California Earthquake of April 18, 1906: Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission Tyler Sydney Harry Fielding Reid Harry Fielding Reid 1908 The Carnegie Institution of Washington Washington, D.C. https://archive.org/details/californiaearth03reidgoog Volume one The California Earthquake of April 18, 1906: Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission Tyler Sydney Harry Fielding Reid Harry Fielding Reid 1910 The Carnegie Institution of Washington Washington, D.C. https://archive.org/details/californiaearth05reidgoog Volume two Source study of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake https://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/office/wald/1906/1906.html 1993 Wald David J. Kanamori Hiroo David J. Wald Hiroo Kanamori Helmberger Donald V. Heaton Thomas H. Donald V. Helmberger Thomas H. Heaton Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America Seismological Society of America 83 4 981–1019 10.1785/BSSA0830040981 1993BuSSA..83..981W 129739379 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20090109015735/http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/office/wald/1906/1906.html January 9, 2009 Winchester, Simon, A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906. HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 2005. 0-06-057199-3 Contemporary disaster accounts A History of the Earthquake and Fire in San Francisco Aitken Frank W. Edward Hilton 1906 The Edward Hilton Co. San Francisco https://archive.org/details/ahistoryearthqu01hiltgoog August 15, 2009 The History of the San Francisco Disaster And Mount Vesuvius Horror Banks Charles Eugene Opie Percival Read 1906 C. E. Thomas https://archive.org/details/historysanfranc00readgoog August 15, 2009 San Francisco in Ruins: A Pictorial History Givens John David Opie Percival Read 1906 Leon C. Osteyee San Francisco https://archive.org/details/sanfranciscoinru00give/mode/1up August 15, 2009 San Francisco Through Earthquake And Fire Keeler Charles 1906 Paul Elder And Company San Francisco https://archive.org/details/sanfranciscothr00keelgoog August 15, 2009 London, Jack. "The Story of An Eyewitness". London's report from the scene. Originally published in Collier's Magazine, May 5, 1906. The San Francisco Calamity by Earthquake and Fire J. C. Winston Company Morris Charles 1906 https://archive.org/details/sanfranciscocala00morrrich August 15, 2009 Reprint: 9780806509846. San Francisco's Great Disaster Tyler Sydney Ralph Stockman Tarr 1908 P. W. Ziegler Co. Philadelphia https://archive.org/details/sanfranciscosgr00tarrgoog August 15, 2009 Complete Story of the San Francisco Horror Hubert D. Russell White Trumbull Richard Linthicum 1906 https://archive.org/details/completestorysa02whitgoog August 15, 2009 Further reading Hudson, James J. (Summer 1976). "The California National Guard: In the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906". California Historical Quarterly 55.2: 137–149. 10.2307/25157628. 25157628. Stein Ross Ross Stein February 25, 2016 Evening Public Lecture: The Gold Rush and the 1906 Earthquake https://www.usgs.gov/media/videos/gold-rush-and-1906-earthquake U.S. Geological Survey June 28, 2025 Video. External links The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake; https://web.archive.org/web/20170211170826/https://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/18april/index.php February 11, 2017 – United States Geological Survey The 1906 Earthquake and Fire – National Archives Before and After the Great Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San Francisco, 1897–1916 – American Memory at the Library of Congress A geologic tour of the San Francisco earthquake, 100 years later – American Geological Institute The Great 1906 Earthquake and Fire – Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco website The Great 1906 Earthquake and Fire; https://web.archive.org/web/20110827132604/http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/earthquakeandfire/index2.html August 27, 2011 – Bancroft Library Mark Twain and the San Francisco Earthquake – Shapell Manuscript Foundation Several film of the aftermath – the Internet Archive San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, April 18, 1906 Seismographs of the earthquake taken from the Lick Observatory from the Lick Observatory Records Digital Archive, UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections; https://web.archive.org/web/20150611014146/http://digitalcollections.ucsc.edu/cdm/search/collection/p265101coll10/searchterm/1906%20earthquake/order/title June 11, 2015 Timeline of the San Francisco Earthquake April 18 – 23, 1906; https://web.archive.org/web/20160303232519/http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist10/06timeline.html March 3, 2016 – The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco JB Monaco Photography – Photographic account of earthquake and fire aftermath from well-known North Beach photographer Tsunami Record from the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake – USGS 16957905 San Francisco earthquake, 1906 1906 San Francisco, 1906 Category:Fires in San Francisco San Francisco earthquake Category:1900s in San Francisco Category:1906 natural disasters in the United States Category:1900s tsunamis Category:April 1906 in the United States Category:Supershear earthquakes Category:Articles containing video clips