Nearly half a million people lived in San Francisco, California on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The majority of them were fast asleep when the world began to shake apart. At 5:12 a.m. the city was struck by a massive earthquake, one which modern science estimates at anywhere from 7.8 to 8.2 on the Richter scale. The series of shocks brought down buildings and split open streets. In a stroke of terrible luck, the earthquake also broke the water mains that served a city where most residences were made of wood, and dozens of fires erupted even as the shaking subsided.
For the next four days, San Francisco burned. With little water available, the fire department resorted to dynamiting buildings in an attempt to slow the fires. By the time the last fires burnt out on Saturday, April 21, this was San Francisco:
Ruins of San Francisco after earthquake and fire, April 18 – 21, 1906. Photo by Lester C. Guernsey, 1906. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.05595
The devastation was overwhelming:
- Over 28,000 buildings were burned, and over 500 city blocks destroyed
- An estimated 3,000 people lost their lives
- More than 200,000 people were left homeless
However, the city flag of San Francisco featured a phoenix rising from the ashes for good reason. In the fifty years since becoming a part of America, the city had burned several times, and been shaken by many earthquakes, large and small. And each time, the city rebuilt. The earthquake and fires of 1906 left a far larger task behind, with widespread destruction on a scale the people of San Francisco had never seen before.
And yet, they did rebuild, and they rebuilt quickly.
In a show of resilience and civic pride, the city not only rebuilt itself, it invited the world to visit as the host of the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition. In fact, rubble from the 1906 earthquake was used to create the land needed for the site of the exposition’s impressive structures. On the ashes of the past, the city rose again.
Witness San Francisco’s growth and transformation from 1851 to 1922 through the slideshow below. (Click anywhere on the images to begin.)
Learn More:
San Francisco, April 18, 1906. Photo by Arnold Genthe, 1906. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/agc.7a55059
- View the aerial photographs taken by George Lawrence using a captive airship shortly after the earthquake.
- Explore photographs of the fires and the damage, as well as glimpses into life for the people of San Francisco in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog.
- See images related to the Panama Pacific International Exposition in 1915.
- Watch films of San Francisco before and after the earthquake and fire from the Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcast and Recorded Sound Division.
Sources & Bibliography:
Burkhart, David. Earthquake Days: The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake & Fire in 3-D. San Bruno, CA: Faultline Books, 2005.
Harris, David, Eric Sandweiss, and Eadweard Muybridge. Eadweard Muybridge and the Photographic Panorama of San Francisco, 1850-1880. Montréal: Canadian Centre for Architecture, 1993.
Saul, Eric, and Don DeNevi. The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, 1906. Millbrae, Calif: Celestial Arts, 1981.
Winchester, Simon. A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.
April 18, 2012 at 4:33 pm
occasionally the paintings fall off the walls, perhaps the lights go out once in a while. The last biggy was in 89. One of my friends was scared of the Bart so he took the bridge. The bridge fell into the bay. The Bart system was just fine.
April 19, 2012 at 7:53 am
I have been to California 20 years ago.
I cannot imagine it that we had an earthquake in 1906.
It is still a clean town.
July 23, 2012 at 11:51 am
Nice post. I was checking continuously this blog and I’m impressed! Extremely helpful information specifically the final phase 🙂 I deal with such information much. I used to be seeking this certain information for a long time. Thank you and good luck.
April 14, 2013 at 8:02 pm
so wut happened before the earthquake?
April 15, 2013 at 3:28 am
This is great!!
I need some info about San Francisco’s Earthquake in 1906 for school and this is great. Thanks.
🙂 keep up the good work! (thumbs up)
April 29, 2013 at 3:33 pm
WOW im learning about it it was bad
May 6, 2013 at 1:10 am
This is a great site that i found a lot of great information on it, i love it so much thanks to whoever made it i found it really helpful!! 🙂
May 21, 2013 at 10:22 pm
this is a very interesting site
May 22, 2013 at 9:41 pm
lol this is a good and awsome 🙂 😉
June 10, 2013 at 1:53 pm
this is awsome
November 12, 2013 at 12:20 pm
i feel bad because my great grand father was in it
November 12, 2013 at 12:21 pm
but this is a great site and has cool facts
November 12, 2013 at 12:22 pm
this is one of the coolest site i have ever been on
November 12, 2013 at 12:26 pm
this a nice site and i got alot of facts from it and i thank who ever made this site and your facts made since to me and me thanks
November 12, 2013 at 12:27 pm
nice site and facts thanks
February 3, 2014 at 9:56 am
I am doing this for school to and i think im going to get an A for the project 🙂
March 25, 2014 at 10:35 pm
it doesn’t really tell what happens after the earthquake
March 25, 2014 at 10:36 pm
doesn’t really tell what happens after
April 30, 2014 at 5:04 pm
I like this information because i get to know a lot of new facts. This is also shocking and sad and interesting because some people died and kids and children. And it is shocking that some people survived from all of that disaster.
June 10, 2014 at 12:20 pm
How many people went missing?
October 23, 2014 at 5:37 pm
this site is awsome i never new a bout this
February 13, 2015 at 2:34 pm
wow
February 17, 2015 at 10:44 pm
this is good
March 6, 2015 at 2:01 pm
this is a good site but does not have much info it does not talk about the facts
March 29, 2015 at 6:44 pm
Loved this blog helped me so much with my gifted project
April 16, 2015 at 5:14 pm
The City that Knows How
April 16, 2015 at 5:16 pm
In the days following the earthquake, officials destroyed an estimated $30,000 worth of intoxicating liquors. Whoa… I feel bad
April 24, 2015 at 4:29 pm
I LOOOOOVVVE IITT!
April 24, 2015 at 4:31 pm
Hey nice site, makes it easier, you know, calmed.
April 26, 2015 at 2:11 pm
doesn’t really tell what happened after the earthquake
May 17, 2015 at 1:11 am
this is really great for my school assignment
June 4, 2015 at 3:21 pm
thats really crazy
June 16, 2015 at 1:15 pm
Thx this is awesome!!!!
September 28, 2015 at 12:49 pm
This article doesn’t really state what happened afterwards in any detail, my question was how did everyone react to the “event” and all it says here is they rebuilt and grieved a little. I didn’t have my question answered so you might want to include more things, like how did people react, how did people recover, how many injured over all, just some more facts would be helpful, thanks for reading this comment/review.
November 8, 2015 at 7:19 pm
This article was useful to me, thank you
November 10, 2015 at 3:31 am
this was very helpful helped for my school asitment not copying any one by the way hi
December 9, 2015 at 11:55 am
it was at 5:18 a.m not 5:12
January 21, 2016 at 12:45 pm
a-some
February 1, 2016 at 2:11 pm
what happened after the earthquake did they rebuild more citys
February 16, 2016 at 3:18 pm
Love this website , you guys have me a lot of information keep up the great work.♥
February 19, 2016 at 12:29 pm
this happened on my bday
February 23, 2016 at 10:02 pm
I was searching trying to see how people/bodies were detected in the crumbled up buildings and I haven’t been able to find anything on this I was hoping to find it here but I’ve looked everywhere… maybe I just read passed it?
March 2, 2016 at 9:46 am
good job thnx
March 31, 2016 at 8:20 pm
I love earthquake and I want to be in a big one
March 31, 2016 at 8:20 pm
I want to know what it feels like to be in an earthquake
May 17, 2016 at 11:03 pm
I saw this site and when i read that more than 3,000 ppl were killed i was amazed at how many ppl died. This was a great site and it helped me with my social studys
May 17, 2016 at 11:07 pm
I saw this site and when i read that more than 3,000 people were killed i was amazed at how many people died. This was a great site and it helped me with my social studys. (^_^)
May 25, 2016 at 12:38 pm
When was San Francisco rebuilt?
May 27, 2016 at 8:38 am
well done pal
September 15, 2016 at 12:49 pm
This is a good site. I need this for school so thanks to whoever made it!
October 17, 2016 at 1:38 pm
This site is so helpful for my projects! Thanks!
October 20, 2016 at 8:35 am
You didn’t touch upon before the Earthquake at all and it literally says in the title BEFORE and AFTER the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
October 25, 2016 at 4:38 pm
Thank you so much. That was so helpful
November 1, 2016 at 2:23 pm
this did not help me i want too know how they coped
November 4, 2016 at 10:11 am
really helpful and i got an a for my class project. keep up the good work.
February 2, 2017 at 8:23 pm
I learned new things about the San Francisco earthquake, but I also wanted to know what happened during the earthquake, still I loved it!:)
March 22, 2017 at 12:36 pm
wow dude
April 19, 2017 at 3:17 pm
I need this for a project and it worked out well. I need to do a slideshow about it and there is a lot of facts that i wrote. Thumbs Up!! *claps* 🙂
April 25, 2017 at 1:42 pm
It was helpful a little bit it doesn’t really tell me what happened after the earthquake and fire
April 30, 2017 at 8:35 pm
Had to use this for my science project about the SF earthquake and fire
May 7, 2017 at 8:31 pm
I need to find 2 pictures of the earthquake effects to today