Click2Disasters - The San Francisco Earthquake, An Eyewitness Remembers - Chapter 8

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE</p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 8 - A PICTORIAL HISTORY</b></font></p> </div>  <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">America’s <a href="http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/papr/sfhome.html" target="_blank"><b>Library of Congress</b></a> and <a href="http://www.archives.gov/" target="_blank"><b>National Archives</b></a> have digitized many pictures of the great earthquake and ensuing fire. So have libraries, <a href="http://sunsite3.berkeley.edu/CalHeritage/" target="_blank"><b>universities</b></a> and <a href="http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906/06.html" target="_blank"><b>museums</b></a> in the San Francisco area. Let’s take a look at a representative sampling.</p><ul> <li>As San Francisco <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0003a.gif" target="_blank"><b>burned</b></a>, horses were injured and many others were afraid to go near the <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0004a.gif" target="_blank"><b>fires</b></a>.</li><br><br> <li>Rescuing <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0054a.gif" target="_blank"><b>people</b></a>, and <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0044a.gif" target="_blank"><b>property</b></a>, from the ruins was a top priority.</li><br><br> <li>So was supplying food. Bags of potatoes had to be <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0029a.gif" target="_blank"><b>re-stacked</b></a> after a rain storm further dampened the people’s spirits.</li><br><br> <li>A line of <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0095a.gif" target="_blank"><b>horses</b></a> waited in front of the National Red Cross headquarters, located in the vicinity of McAllister and Gough Streets. <a href="http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist10/deadhorses.html" target="_blank"><b>Other horses</b></a> were not so fortunate.</li><br><br> <li>The general <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/31/17/31-1647a.gif" target="_blank"><b>landscape</b></a> of the city reveals what can happen when buildings in earthquake zones are not reinforced.</li><br><br> <li>Families, rendered <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0036a.gif" target="_blank"><b>homeless</b></a> in their <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0041a.gif" target="_blank"><b>burning</b></a> city, slept on the side of a hill.</li><br><br> <li><a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0058a.gif" target="_blank"><b>City Hall</b></a>, located at McAllister Street and Van Ness Avenue, was <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/2/27-0101a.gif" target="_blank"><b>badly</b></a> <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0046a.gif" target="_blank"><b>damaged</b></a> in the quake.</li><br><br> <li><a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0097a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Debris</b></a> surrounded the south side of the Palace Hotel.</li><br><br> <li>Market Street - as it <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0073a.gif" target="_blank"><b>appeared</b></a> looking west from Montgomery Avenue.</li><br><br> <li><a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0093a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Ruins</b></a> in the vicinity of California and Mason Streets, with the <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0091a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Fairmont Hotel</b></a> in the distance.</li><br><br> <li>The Fairmont Hill area was <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0090a.gif" target="_blank"><b>strewn</b></a> with wreckage.</li><br><br> <li>The <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0071a.gif" target="_blank"><b>waterfront</b></a>, along <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0087a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Embarcadero Street</b></a> (near Clay and Broadway) shows distant smoke coming from Telegraph Hill.</li><br><br> <li>Like elsewhere in the city, the main part of the <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0072a.gif" target="_blank"><b>retail district</b></a> was hard hit.</li><br><br> <li>With Telegraph Hill in the background, <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0064a.gif" target="_blank"><b>St. Mary’s Church</b></a> (at the entrance to Chinatown) remained standing.</li><br><br> <li>The U.S. Army Signal Corps (in the Tennessee Hollow, Presidio of San Francisco) had <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0070a.gif" target="_blank"><b>two</b></a> of the few automobiles then available in the city.</li><br><br> <li>The <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0060a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Ferry Building</b></a>, at the foot of Market Street, provided a place <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0006a.gif" target="_blank"><b>from</b></a> which to photograph the <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/43/5/43-0414a.gif" target="_blank"><b>still-smoldering</b></a>, surrounding area.</li><br><br> <li>Hotels (like the <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0039a.gif" target="_blank"><b>Valencia</b></a>, where a reported fifty people died) and <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0038a.gif" target="_blank"><b>homes</b></a> throughout the city either collapsed or subsided.</li><br><br> <li>Cleaning up the city, and <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0052a.gif" target="_blank"><b>hauling</b></a> away the <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0051a.gif" target="_blank"><b>debris</b></a>, was a huge job throughout <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/27/1/27-0047a.gif" target="_blank"><b>San Francisco</b></a> in 1906.</li></ul> <p align="justify">Although their city had been demolished, the people rallied. As one eyewitness, Ernest Adams, <a href="http://www.sfmuseum.net/1906/ew3.html" target="_blank"><b>observed</b></a>:</p> <center><font face=Times New Roman"><b><i>Here we are all paupers together, but we have our grit left.</i></b></font></center> </div> <p align="center"><font face="arial, helvetica"><font size="2"><a href="san_francisco_ch7.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="san_francisco_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER  </a>   <a href="san_francisco_ch9.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>