The Great San Francisco Earthquake: April 18, 1906
Art in the Age spent this past weekend exploring the rolling hills of San Francisco in search of ROOT cocktails, and it just happens that today marks a pivotal date in the history of this great city.
At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, a magnitude 8.3 (Richter Scale) earthquake struck San Francisco. With thousands of un-reinforced brick buildings and closely-spaced wooden Victorian dwellings, the city was poorly prepared for the quake. Collapsed buildings, broken chimneys, and a water shortage due to broken mains, led to several large uncontrollable fires. The fire raged for three days, sweeping over nearly a quarter of the city, including the entire downtown area.
The earthquake and fire would leave a long-standing and significant impression 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, with a population of about 410,000. Over a period of 60 years, the city had become the financial, trade and cultural center of the West; operated the busiest port on the West Coast; and was the “gateway to the Pacific”, through which growing US economic and military power was projected into the Pacific and Asia. Although over 80% of the city was destroyed by the earthquake and fire, by 1908, San Francisco was well on the way to recovery.
