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:
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:
- 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.
Comments (74)
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.
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.
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.
so wut happened before the earthquake?
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)
WOW im learning about it it was bad
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!! 🙂
this is a very interesting site
lol this is a good and awsome 🙂 😉
this is awsome
i feel bad because my great grand father was in it
but this is a great site and has cool facts
this is one of the coolest site i have ever been on
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
nice site and facts thanks
I am doing this for school to and i think im going to get an A for the project 🙂
it doesn’t really tell what happens after the earthquake
doesn’t really tell what happens after
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.
How many people went missing?
this site is awsome i never new a bout this
wow
this is good
this is a good site but does not have much info it does not talk about the facts
Loved this blog helped me so much with my gifted project
The City that Knows How
In the days following the earthquake, officials destroyed an estimated $30,000 worth of intoxicating liquors. Whoa… I feel bad
I LOOOOOVVVE IITT!
Hey nice site, makes it easier, you know, calmed.
doesn’t really tell what happened after the earthquake
this is really great for my school assignment
thats really crazy
Thx this is awesome!!!!
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.
This article was useful to me, thank you
this was very helpful helped for my school asitment not copying any one by the way hi
it was at 5:18 a.m not 5:12
a-some
what happened after the earthquake did they rebuild more citys
Love this website , you guys have me a lot of information keep up the great work.♥
this happened on my bday
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?
good job thnx
I love earthquake and I want to be in a big one
I want to know what it feels like to be in an earthquake
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
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. (^_^)
When was San Francisco rebuilt?
well done pal
This is a good site. I need this for school so thanks to whoever made it!
This site is so helpful for my projects! Thanks!
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.
Thank you so much. That was so helpful
this did not help me i want too know how they coped
really helpful and i got an a for my class project. keep up the good work.
I learned new things about the San Francisco earthquake, but I also wanted to know what happened during the earthquake, still I loved it!:)
wow dude
I wanted to know how did it affect the city, but at list I got some information
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* 🙂
It was helpful a little bit it doesn’t really tell me what happened after the earthquake and fire
Had to use this for my science project about the SF earthquake and fire
I need to find 2 pictures of the earthquake effects to today
What a tragedy – the earthquakes that destroyed the city more than once, I might add, killed thousands of people. While a lot of the dead were recovered, there are most likely still hundreds more buried that were not. I’m sure there are lots of reported hauntings around the city. The deaths coupled with tragedy results in restless spirits.
Look it up on Google – san francisco hauntings. The biggest quake is yet to come. If you live there, make plans to escape once it happens. Believe me, it’s not a matter of ‘IF’ it’s a matter of ‘WHEN’.
Very useful website good job :))))) (THUMBS UP!!!)
This was very helpful.You did great writing this. Keep up the good work.
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oof that sucks
;-; dat sad
WoW, i did not know nothing about the San Francisco earthquake this helped alot thanks:):):):):):):):):)
thanks this website is really helpful for the book were making
oh my god i love this so much, this helped me out with my san fransisco earthquake speech and i love this website, keep up the good work, thanks. :3
So wut happened before and where’s the after too?
Very nice site. I am a fourth generation resident of SF and a big local history buff. I still remember the Loma Priest quake vividly. I often refer to your site to see what buildings were lost to us, and what was able to be restored.
Thanks! I’m working on this for a geography assignment and it helps.
this helped so much for my project thank you