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San Francisco before the quake -

At the turn of the 20th century, San Francisco was a thriving city of 400,000 people. Its boundaries were expanding exponentially as cable cars enabled the city's grid to spread over its steepest hills, and San Francisco's Chinatown district was the largest Chinese settlement outside of Asia.

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The quake strikes -

Early on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake. San Francisco was shaken to its foundations. The tremors broke water mains and triggered fires that raged for four days, killing 3,000 people, destroying 25,000 buildings, and leaving 250,000 homeless. Photographers based in and around the stricken city were on hand to capture the devastation caused by what is still the deadliest earthquake in the history of the United States. Pictured is the view from the southeast slope of Nob Hill of fires burning, south of the city's Market District.

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An image of disaster -

German-American photographer Arnold Genthe took probably the most famous photo of the destruction of San Francisco, capturing this view of damage in Sacramento Street as fires raged in the distance.

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Capturing the calamity -

This photograph of San Francisco's Mission District burning in the aftermath of the earthquake was taken by a H.D. Chadwick.

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A view of devastation -

This photograph taken from the tower of the Ferry Building shows the smoldering ruins of San Francisco. The building was one of the few that survived the earthquake relatively undamaged.

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Filmed for posterity -

This is the Ferry Building pictured after the quake. By a remarkable coincidence, just four days before disaster struck, a short film had been made shot from a moving streetcar that made its way down Market Street to terminate at the Ferry Building. It records a moment in San Francisco history that would soon cease to exist. The fascinating eight-minute newsreel is preserved by the Library of Congress and can be viewed on its website.

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A city destroyed -

As the flames subsided, the extent of the city's destruction became frighteningly apparent. This view from Nob Hill shows a charred skyline of collapsed buildings.

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Pictured among the rubble -

Here, a man photographs the ruins of a building block in front of the remains of City Hall.

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A sorry scene -

This is the corner of Market and Post streets, taken from Montgomery Street. The view is similar to the one that opens this gallery, the destruction of a once bustling hub near-complete.

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Houses demolished -

This is another iconic image recording the aftermath of the earthquake. It shows damaged houses on Howard Street (now South Van Ness Avenue) near 17th Street, the properties leaning against each other concertina-like.

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Wasteland -

Devasted downtown San Francisco resembles a wasteland in this photograph taken from the tower of the Ferry Building looking towards Telegraph Hill.

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Damaged beyond repair -

This is what the 1899 City Hall building looked like after the quake and fire. The structure was too badly damaged to be salvaged and was demolished. Construction on a new building started in 1913 and was completed by 1915, in time for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.

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Streets leveled -

Seen here on the left are ruins of the original Phelan Building on Market Street. Too badly damaged to be rebuilt, the shell was dynamited on April 20.

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Walking in the ruins -

Bewildered residents walk among the debris scattered along Pine Street below Kearney Street after the earthquake.

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The financial cost -

Millions of dollars-worth of trade and commerce was lost in the aftermath of the earthquake. Here, a brick wall facade is the only thing left of what was once Pettibone Bros., a department store that stood on New Montgomery Street.

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Iconic survivor -

Ironically, the Fairmont Hotel was nearly completed before the earthquake struck. While the structure survived, the interior was badly damaged by fire. Today, the Fairmount is one of San Francisco's most luxurious hotel properties.

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Chinatown nearly wiped off the map -

The earthquake flattened San Francisco's famous Chinatown. No one knows how many people died in the densely packed blocks of Chinatown, with an estimated population of 14,000. And in the months following the disaster, Chinatown almost wasn't rebuilt. Seen as prime real estate, and with racism rampant in that age, city leaders attempted to relocate the district to the mud flats on the southern outskirts of the city. The proposal was eventually dropped.

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Fault line -

The enormous fissure that appeared on 18th Street near Folsom served as testament to the incredible power unleashed by the quake.

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Transport links destroyed -

Elsewhere in the city, more cracks were apparent. Streets and sidewalks were caved in, rendering tram tracks quite useless.

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Loss of property -

Property losses from the disaster were estimated to be in excess of US$400 million. This is equivalent to $9.81 billion in 2024 dollars.

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Buildings reduced to rubble -

All sections of San Francisco society were affected by the disaster. This photograph depicts the rubble that was once fashionable Rincon Hill, "where the aristocrats lived" as one reporter observed.

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Death and destruction -

As the city began to dig itself out of the rubble, the scale of the tragedy became clear. A constant reminder of the dreadful consequences of what had happened was evident in the awful stench of charred and rotting corpses hanging in the dust-filled air.

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The survivors -

Survivors, meanwhile, were now refugees in their own city. A quarter of a million people had suddenly found themselves homeless. Here, a soup kitchen feeds the displaced.

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Thinking on their feet -

Some hardy residents demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. In this photograph, a woman in an apron cooks a meal on a stove in the street.

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Refugees in their own city -

Tents to house the homeless were set up in parks and on land cleared of rubble.

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A family's fate -

Golden Gate Park served as a huge refugee camp, where this mother was photographed preparing a meal over a makeshift stove for her two young children. In the background, soldiers and other refugees stand by tents.

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Dark humor -

And even in these most desperate of hours, dark humor prevailed. Here, in front of their tent in a refugee camp, a group of refugees has jokingly referred to their temporary shelter as the "house of mirth" where you can "ring the bell for the landlady" and be offered "furnished rooms with running water, steam heat, and elevator."

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Leaving the city -

Many residents, though, decided to pack up and leave the devastated city, perhaps to stay with friends or relatives.

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Legacy -

This extraordinary panoramic image of San Francisco after the earthquake was taken by George R. Lawrence using pioneering kite aerial photography. It clearly shows Market Street leading directly away from the Ferry Building and takes in Twin Peaks, seen center-left in the background.

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A design rethink -

The steel framework of an unfinished building stands intact amid the rubble of more vulnerable stone buildings. The calamity prompted civil engineers to rethink the way buildings were designed and built. Plans were redrawn to seismic and fire-proof standards.

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Blaming the San Andreas Fault -

An investigation into the cause of the earthquake concluded that a slip on the San Andreas Fault prompted the tremors, which measured a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter scale. Further analysis of a crack in the Summit Tunnel along the South Pacific Coast Railroad supported this claim. The quake's epicenter was pinpointed as being offshore. According to the US Geological Survey, San Francisco can expect to be hit by an earthquake similar in magnitude before 2032.

Sources: (History) (Library of Congress) (NPR) (The San Francisco Standard) (SFGate) (USGS) 

See also: How earthquakes reshape our planet

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