1906 San Francisco earthquake#Centennial commemorations

The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that forms part of the tectonic boundary between the Pacific plate and the North American plate. The strike-slip fault is characterized by mainly lateral motion in a dextral sense, where the western (Pacific) plate moves northward relative to the eastern (North American) plate. This fault runs the length of California from the Salton Sea in the south to Cape Mendocino in the north, a distance of about {{convert|810|mi|km}}. The maximum observed surface displacement was about 20 feet (6 m); geodetic measurements show displacements of up to 28 feet (8.5 m).[https://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/18april/offset.php 1906 San Francisco Quake: How large was the offset?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161222063303/http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/18april/offset.php |date=December 22, 2016 }} USGS Earthquake Hazards Program — Northern California. Retrieved September 3, 2016

File:1906-04-18 San Fransisco, California M7.9 earthquake shakemap.jpg

File:Summit Tunnel (Tunnel 2) with damage from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake near north portal.png along the South Pacific Coast Railroad after the earthquake, with the north tunnel portal in the background and Wrights, California, just outside of the portal]]

The 1906 earthquake preceded the development of the Richter scale by three decades. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the quake on the modern moment magnitude scale is 7.9;{{Cite web|url=http://seismo.berkeley.edu/faq/1906_0.html|title=Where Can I Learn More About the 1906 Earthquake?|date=January 28, 2008|website=Berkeley Seismological Laboratory|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080327145305/http://seismo.berkeley.edu/faq/1906_0.html|archive-date=March 27, 2008|url-status=dead}} values from 7.7 to as high as 8.3 have been proposed.{{Cite journal|title=Strain accumulation and release mechanism of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake|last=Thatcher|first=Wayne|date=December 10, 1975|journal=Journal of Geophysical Research|doi=10.1029/JB080i035p04862|bibcode=1975JGR....80.4862T|volume=80|issue=35|pages=4862–4872}} According to findings published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, severe deformations in the Earth's crust took place both before and after the earthquake's impact. Accumulated strain on the faults in the system was relieved during the earthquake, which is the supposed cause of the damage along the {{convert|450|km|mi|adj=mid|-long|sp=us|order=flip}} segment of the San Andreas plate boundary. The 1906 rupture propagated both northward and southward for a total of {{convert|296|mi|km}}.[http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/info/1906/howlong.html 1906 Earthquake: How long was the 1906 Crack?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006171016/http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/info/1906/howlong.html |date=October 6, 2008 }} USGS Earthquake Hazards Program – Northern California. Retrieved September 3, 2006 Shaking was felt from Oregon to Los Angeles, and as far inland as central Nevada.[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/4/2006_4_26.shtml Christine Gibson] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205074823/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/4/2006_4_26.shtml |date=December 5, 2010 }} "Our 10 Greatest Natural Disasters," American Heritage, Aug./Sept. 2006.

A strong foreshock preceded the main shock by about 20 to 25 seconds. The strong shaking of the main shock lasted about 42 seconds. There were decades of minor earthquakes – more than at any other time in the historical record for northern California – before the 1906 quake. Previously interpreted as precursory activity to the 1906 earthquake, they have been found to have a strong seasonal pattern and are now believed to be caused by large seasonal sediment loads in coastal bays that overlie faults as a result of the erosion caused by hydraulic mining in the later years of the California gold rush.{{cite journal|doi=10.1007/PL00001268|title=Seasonal Seismicity of Northern California Before the Great 1906 Earthquake|year=2002|last1=Westaway|first1=R.|journal=Pure and Applied Geophysics|volume=159|issue=1–3|pages=7–62|bibcode=2002PApGe.159....7W}}

For years, the epicenter of the quake was assumed to be near the town of Olema, in the Point Reyes area of Marin County, due to local earth displacement measurements. In the 1960s, a seismologist at UC Berkeley proposed that the epicenter was more likely offshore of San Francisco, to the northwest of the Golden Gate. The most recent analyses support an offshore location for the epicenter, although significant uncertainty remains. An offshore epicenter is supported by the occurrence of a local tsunami recorded by a tide gauge at the San Francisco Presidio; the wave had an amplitude of approximately {{convert|3|in|cm}} and an approximate period of 40{{ndash}}45 minutes.[http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/tsunami/1906.html Tsunami Record from the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake], United States Geological Survey, 2008

Analysis of triangulation data before and after the earthquake strongly suggests that the rupture along the San Andreas Fault was about {{convert|500|km|mi|sp=us|order=flip}} in length, in agreement with observed intensity data. The available seismological data support a significantly shorter rupture length, but these observations can be reconciled by allowing propagation at speeds above the S-wave velocity (supershear). Supershear propagation has now been recognized for many earthquakes associated with strike-slip faulting.{{Cite journal|last1=Song S.G|last2=Beroza G.C.|last3=Segall P.|title=A Unified Source Model for the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake|url=https://pangea.stanford.edu/cdfm/sites/default/files/pubs/song2008.pdf|journal=Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America|volume=98|issue=2|pages=823–831|doi=10.1785/0120060402|year=2008|bibcode=2008BuSSA..98..823S}}

In 2019, using an old photograph and an eyewitness account, researchers were able to refine the location of the hypocenter of the earthquake as offshore from San Francisco or near San Juan Bautista, confirming previous estimates.{{Cite web|url=https://gizmodo.com/how-scientists-used-a-1906-photo-to-find-the-center-of-1832208787|title=How Scientists Used a 1906 Photo to Find the Center of San Francisco's Most Infamous Earthquake|website=Gizmodo|date=January 30, 2019}}

The most important characteristic of the shaking intensity noted in Andrew Lawson's 1908 report was the clear correlation of intensity with underlying geologic conditions. Areas situated in sediment-filled valleys sustained stronger shaking than nearby bedrock sites, and the strongest shaking occurred in areas of former bay where soil liquefaction had occurred. Modern seismic-zonation practice accounts for the differences in seismic hazard posed by varying geologic conditions.{{Cite web|url=http://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/shzp/Pages/article10.aspx|title=California Geological Survey – Seismic Hazards Zonation Program – Seismic Hazards Mapping regulations|access-date=January 18, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150727234639/http://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/shzp/Pages/article10.aspx|archive-date=July 27, 2015|url-status=dead}} The shaking intensity as described on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale reached XI (Extreme) in San Francisco and areas to the north like Santa Rosa where destruction was devastating.

The main shock was followed by many aftershocks and some remotely triggered events. As with the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake, there were fewer aftershocks than would have been expected for a shock of that size. Very few of them were located along the trace of the 1906 rupture, tending to concentrate near the ends of the rupture or on other structures away from the San Andreas Fault, such as the Hayward Fault. The only aftershock in the first few days of near M 5 or greater occurred near Santa Cruz at 14:28 PST on April 18, with a magnitude of about 4.9 {{M|I|link=yes}}. The largest aftershock happened at 01:10 PST on April 23, west of Eureka with an estimated magnitude of about 6.7 {{M|I}}, with another of the same size more than three years later at 22:45 PST on October 28 near Cape Mendocino.{{Cite journal|last1=Meltzner|first1=A.J.|last2=Wald|first2=D.J.|author-link2=David J. Wald|date=2003|title=Aftershocks and Triggered Events of the Great 1906 California Earthquake|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/33111939.pdf|url-status=dead|journal=Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America|volume=93|issue=5|pages=2160–2186|bibcode=2003BuSSA..93.2160M|doi=10.1785/0120020033|s2cid=128704816|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211011074207/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/33111939.pdf|archive-date=October 11, 2021|access-date=July 6, 2020}}

Remotely triggered events included an earthquake swarm in the Imperial Valley area, which culminated in an earthquake of about 6.1 {{M|I}} at 16:30 PST on April 18, 1906. Another event of this type occurred at 12:31 PST on April 19, 1906, with an estimated magnitude of about 5.0 {{M|I}}, and an epicenter beneath Santa Monica Bay.

{{multiple image

| align = left | total_width = 850

| image1 = SanFranHouses06.JPG |caption1= Damaged houses on Howard Street

| image2 = 19060419 San Francisco Earthquake - The New York Times.jpg | caption2= Seismographs on the U.S. east coast recorded the earthquake some 19 minutes later; some early death estimates exceeded 500.{{cite news|title=Over 500 Dead; $200,000,000 lost in San Francisco Earthquake / All San Francisco May Burn|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:19060419_San_Francisco_Earthquake_-_The_New_York_Times.jpg|work=The New York Times|date=April 19, 1906|page=1}}

}}

Early death counts ranged from 375William Bronson, The Earth Shook, The Sky Burned (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1996) to over 500. However, hundreds of fatalities in Chinatown went ignored and unrecorded. The total number of deaths is still uncertain, but various reports presented a range of 700–3,000+. In 2005, the city's Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in support of a resolution written by novelist James Dalessandro ("1906") and city historian Gladys Hansen ("Denial of Disaster") to recognize the figure of 3,000+ as the official total.[https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/events/1906calif/18april/casualties.php Casualties and Damage after the 1906 earthquake] USGS Earthquake Hazards Program – Northern California. Retrieved September 4, 2006{{cite book|author1=Gladys C. Hansen|author2=Emmet Condon|author3=David Fowler|title=Denial of Disaster|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZCu1AAAACAAJ|year=1989|publisher=Cameron and Company|isbn=978-0-918684-33-2}} Most of the deaths occurred within San Francisco, but 189 were reported elsewhere in the Bay Area; nearby cities such as Santa Rosa and San Jose also suffered severe damage.

Between 227,000 and 300,000 people were left homeless out of a population of about 410,000; half of those who evacuated fled across the bay to Oakland and Berkeley. Newspapers described Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, the Panhandle and the beaches between Ingleside and North Beach as covered with makeshift tents. More than two years later, many of these refugee camps were still in operation.Displays at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Museum in Sausalito, California

The earthquake and fire left long-standing and significant pressures 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. Over a period of 60 years, the city had become the financial, trade, and cultural center of the West, operating the busiest port on the West Coast. It was the "gateway to the Pacific", through which growing U.S. economic and military power was projected into the Pacific and Asia. Over 80% of the city was destroyed by the earthquake and fire. Though San Francisco rebuilt quickly, the disaster diverted trade, industry, and population growth south to Los Angeles,{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} which during the 20th century became the largest and most important urban area in the West. Many of the city's leading poets and writers retreated to Carmel-by-the-Sea where, as "The Barness", they established the arts colony reputation that continues today.{{cite web|url=http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/5aa/5aa300.htm|title=The Carmel Monterey Peninsula Art Colony: A History|first=Barbara J.|last=Klein|publisher=Traditional Fine Arts Organization|access-date=August 1, 2009|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090827084926/http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/5aa/5aa300.htm|archive-date=August 27, 2009}}

The 1908 Lawson Report, a study of the 1906 quake led and edited by Professor Andrew Lawson of the University of California, showed that the same San Andreas Fault which had caused the disaster in San Francisco ran close to Los Angeles as well.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/californiaearth00reidgoog|title=The California Earthquake of April 18, 1906: Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission ...|last1=Lawson|first1=Andrew Cowper|last2=Reid|first2=Harry Fielding|publisher=Carnegie Institution of Washington|year=1908|pages=[https://archive.org/details/californiaearth00reidgoog/page/n51 25]}} The earthquake was the first natural disaster of its magnitude to be documented by photography and motion picture footage and occurred at a time when the science of seismology was blossoming.{{Cite web|title=1906 Marked the Dawn of the Scientific Revolution|url=https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/events/1906calif/18april/revolution.php|website=U.S.G.S. - Earthquake Hazards Program: 1906 Earthquake}}

Although the impact of the earthquake on San Francisco was the most famous, the earthquake also inflicted considerable damage on several other cities. These include San Jose and Santa Rosa, the entire downtown of which was essentially destroyed.[http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb809nb5z5/?order=2&brand=eqf "A Dreadful Catastrophe Visits Santa Rosa"] Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, California, April 19, 1906. Retrieved February 23, 2015.{{Cite web|url=http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb6000084t/?query=santa+rosa&query-join=or&brand=eqf|title=Sta. Rosa [i.e. Santa Rosa] Courthouse.|website=content.cdlib.org}}{{Cite web|url=http://content.cdlib.org/search?brand=eqf&style=eqf&text-join=or&fieldList=text+keywords&relation=bancroft.berkeley.edu+collections+earthquakeandfire&keyword=santa+rosa&publisher=|title=The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire|website=content.cdlib.org}}

{{Anchor|Subsequent fires}}

File:San Francisco Fire Sacramento Street 1906-04-18.jpg's photograph, looking toward the fire on Sacramento Street]]

As damaging as the earthquake and its aftershocks were, the fires that burned out of control afterward were far more destructive.{{cite news|title=Over 500 Dead, $200,000,000 Lost in San Francisco Earthquake|url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0418.html|quote=Earthquake and fire today have put nearly half of San Francisco in ruins. About 500 persons have been killed, a thousand injured, and the property loss will exceed $200,000,000.|work=The New York Times|date=April 18, 1906|access-date=April 19, 2008}} It has been estimated that at least 80%, and at most over 95%, of the total destruction was the result of the subsequent fires.{{Cite journal|last=Tobriner|first=Stephen|date=April 1, 2006|title=An EERI Reconnaissance Report: Damage to San Francisco in the 1906 Earthquake—A Centennial Perspective|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1193/1.2186693|journal=Earthquake Spectra|volume=22|issue=2S|pages=11–41|doi=10.1193/1.2186693|bibcode=2006EarSp..22...11T|issn=8755-2930}} Within three days,{{cite web|url=http://mceer.buffalo.edu/1906_Earthquake/san-francisco-earthquake.asp|title=The Great 1906 Earthquake & Fires of San Francisco|access-date=February 3, 2014|archive-date=February 4, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140204122356/http://mceer.buffalo.edu/1906_earthquake/san-francisco-earthquake.asp|url-status=dead}} over 30 fires, caused by ruptured gas mains, destroyed approximately 25,000 buildings on 490 city blocks. The fires cost an estimated $350 million at the time (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US-GDP|.35|1906|r=2}} billion in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}).{{Inflation/fn|US-GDP}}

The Ham and Eggs{{cite web|title=View of fires—including Ham and Eggs fire, right center—looking east along Fell St. City Hall, center.|url=https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/hb167nb1qr/|website=calisphere|access-date=January 1, 2023|date=1906}} fire, in the morning on the 18th, at Hayes and Gough Streets,{{cite web|title=DRC7201: the prevention of natural disasters|url=https://authors.library.caltech.edu/26444/1/DRC7201.pdf|website=authors.library.caltech.edu|access-date=January 1, 2023}} in Hayes Valley, was started by a woman who lit her stove to prepare breakfast, unaware of the badly damaged chimney,{{cite web|title=Ham and Eggs fire. Hayes between Franklin and Gough. (Started because a woman insisted on getting breakfast for her husband.) :34|url=https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf3000076f/?brand=oac4&layout=metadata|website=oac.cdlib.org|access-date=January 1, 2023}}{{cite news|title=The Dangers of Cooking After a Quake: The Ham and Eggs Fire|url=https://hoodline.com/2013/04/the-dangers-of-cooking-after-a-quake-the-ham-and-eggs-fire/|access-date=January 1, 2023|work=hoodline|date=April 18, 2013}} destroying a 30-block area,{{cite web|title=Earthquake Fires|url=https://www.calfireprevention.org/earthquake-fires/|website=California Fire Prevention Organization|access-date=January 1, 2023}} including a college, the Hall of Records and City Hall.{{cite news|title=Earthquake Fire: San Francisco, April 1906|url=https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a1964/4219864/|access-date=January 1, 2023|work=Popular Mechanics|date=July 30, 2007}}{{cite web|title=The Old Bay Margins|url=https://www.ncgeolsoc.org/past-field-trips/the-old-bay-margins/|website=Northern California Geological Society|access-date=January 1, 2023}}{{cite journal|last1=Boehm|first1=Lisa Krissoff|title=The Great San Francisco Earthquake: One of America's Worst Urban Disasters (review)|journal=Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies|date=2007|volume=37|issue=1|pages=87–88|doi=10.1353/flm.2007.0003|s2cid=162254376|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/215912|access-date=January 1, 2023}}{{cite web|title=Ham and Eggs Fire Silver Twin Hydrant|url=https://hayesvalleysf.org/ham-and-eggs-fire-silver-twin-hydrant/2015/04/|publisher=Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association|access-date=January 1, 2023|date=April 18, 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Bhalerao|first1=Camille|title=1906 San Francisco Earthquake Facts & Lessons|url=https://blog.jumpstartinsurance.com/1906-san-francisco-earthquake-lessons-from-history/|website=Blog|publisher=Jumpstart insurance|access-date=January 1, 2023|date=May 9, 2021}}

Some of the fires were started when San Francisco Fire Department firefighters, untrained in the use of dynamite, attempted to demolish buildings to create firebreaks. The dynamited buildings often caught fire. The city's fire chief, Dennis T. Sullivan, who would have been responsible for coordinating firefighting efforts, had died from injuries sustained in the initial quake.{{cite book|title=Fire Following Earthquake|year=2005|publisher=ASCE, NFPA|location=Reston, Virginia|isbn=9780784407394|url=http://www.asce.org/Product.aspx?id=2147485909&productid=5362|editor1=Charles Scawthorn|editor2=John Eidinger|editor3=Anshel Schiff|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928111244/http://www.asce.org/Product.aspx?id=2147485909&productid=5362|archive-date=September 28, 2013}} In total, the fires burned for four days and nights.

Most of the destruction in the city was attributed to the fires, since widespread practice by insurers was to indemnify San Francisco properties from fire but not from earthquake damage. Some property owners deliberately set fire to damaged properties to claim them on their insurance. Captain Leonard D. Wildman of the U.S. Army Signal Corps{{Cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/archive/prsf/history/1906eq/sigcorps.htm|title=NPS Signal Corps History}} reported that he "was stopped by a fireman who told me that people in that neighborhood were firing their houses...they were told that they would not get their insurance on buildings damaged by the earthquake unless they were damaged by fire".{{Cite web|url=http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906.2/arson.html|title=1906 Earthquake Arson Fires|website=sfmuseum.org}}

{{multiple image

| align = left

| image1 = Sfearthquake3b.jpg

| image2 = 1907 Geological Survey Map of San Francisco after 1906 Earthquake - Geographicus - SanFrancisco-humphrey-1907.jpg

| footer =Burning of the Mission District (left) and a map showing the extent of the fire

}}

One landmark building lost in the fire was the Palace Hotel, subsequently rebuilt, which had many famous visitors including royalty and celebrated performers. It was constructed in 1875 primarily financed by Bank of California co-founder William Ralston, the "man who built San Francisco". In April 1906, the tenor Enrico Caruso and members of the Metropolitan Opera Company came to San Francisco to give a series of performances at the Grand Opera House. The night after Caruso's performance in Carmen, the tenor was awakened in the early morning in his Palace Hotel suite by a strong jolt. Clutching an autographed photo of President Theodore Roosevelt, Caruso made an effort to get out of the city, first by boat and then by train, and vowed never to return to San Francisco. Caruso died in 1921, having remained true to his word. The Metropolitan Opera Company lost all of its traveling sets and costumes in the earthquake and ensuing fires.{{Cite web|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/04/27/101878127.pdf|title=NY Times Obituary for Heinrich Conrad, April 27, 1909}}

{{listen

| filename = The Story of An Eyewitness by Jack London - read by Elaine Hamby for LibriVox's Short Nonfiction Collection Vol. 006 (2007).ogg

| title = {{center|"The Story of An Eyewitness"
by Jack London
Read by Elaine Hamby for LibriVox}}

| description = {{center|Audio 00:18:06 (full text)}}

| pos = right

| type = speech

| image = 70px

}}

Some of the greatest losses from fire were in scientific laboratories. Alice Eastwood, the curator of botany at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, is credited with saving nearly 1,500 specimens, including the entire type specimen collection for a newly discovered and extremely rare species, before the remainder of the largest botanical collection in the western United States was destroyed in the fire.Alice Eastwood, The Coniferae of the Santa Lucia MountainsDouble Cone Quarterly, Fall Equinox, volume VII, Number 3 (2004) The entire laboratory and all the records of Benjamin R. Jacobs, a biochemist who was researching the nutrition of everyday foods, were destroyed.{{Cite journal|doi=10.1021/ie50129a023|journal=Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry|title=Laboratory Control of Wheat Flour Milling|date=1920|last1=Jacobs|first1=Benjamin R.|last2=Rask|first2=Olaf S.|volume=12|issue=9|pages=899–903}} The original California flag used in the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt at Sonoma, which at the time was being stored in a state building in San Francisco, was also destroyed in the fire.{{Cite web|url=http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist6/toddflag.html|title=California Bear Flag – 1846|website=sfmuseum.org}}

The city's fire chief, Dennis T. Sullivan, was gravely injured when the earthquake first struck and later died from his injuries.{{cite book|last=Nash|first=Jay Robert|author-link=Jay Robert Nash|title=Darkest Hours|page=492}} The interim fire chief sent an urgent request to the Presidio for dynamite. General Frederick Funston had already decided that the situation required the use of federal troops. Telephoning a San Francisco Police Department officer, he sent word to Mayor Eugene Schmitz of his decision to assist and then ordered federal troops from nearby Angel Island to mobilize and enter the city. Explosives were ferried across the bay from the California Powder Works in what is now Hercules.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

File:Soldiers looting 1906 fire.jpg

During the first few days, soldiers provided valuable services like patrolling streets to discourage looting and guarding buildings such as the U.S. Mint, post office, and county jail. They aided the fire department in dynamiting to demolish buildings in the path of the fires. The Army also became responsible for feeding, sheltering, and clothing the tens of thousands of displaced residents of the city. Under the command of Funston's superior, Major General Adolphus Greely, Commanding Officer of the Pacific Division, over 4,000 federal troops saw service during the emergency. Police officers, firefighters, and soldiers would regularly commandeer passing civilians for work details to remove rubble and assist in rescues. On July 1, 1906, non-military authorities assumed responsibility for relief efforts, and the Army withdrew from the city.

On April 18, in response to riots among evacuees and looting, Mayor Schmitz issued and ordered posted a proclamation that "The Federal Troops, the members of the Regular Police Force and all Special Police Officers have been authorized by me to kill any and all persons found engaged in Looting or in the Commission of Any Other Crime".{{cite web|url=http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906.2/killproc.html|title=Mayor Eugene Schmitz's Famed "Shoot-to-Kill" Order|publisher=Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco|access-date=September 3, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060823093603/http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906.2/killproc.html|archive-date=August 23, 2006|url-status=dead}} Accusations of soldiers engaging in looting also surfaced.{{cite web|url=http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906.2/wolfe.html|title=Looting Claims Against the U.S. Army Following the 1906 Earthquake|publisher=Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco|access-date=March 26, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080328150549/http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906.2/wolfe.html|archive-date=March 28, 2008|url-status=dead}} Retired Captain Edward Ord of the 22nd Infantry Regiment was appointed a special police officer by Schmitz and liaised with Greely for relief work with the 22nd Infantry and other military units involved in the emergency. Ord later wrote a long letter{{cite web|access-date=October 7, 2009|url=http://www.library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/cl146.htm|title=Ord Family Papers|author=Variouswork=Georgetown University Libraries Special Collections|publisher=Georgetown University Library, 37th and N Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20057|year=2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100614112237/http://www.library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/cl146.htm|archive-date=June 14, 2010|url-status=dead}} to his mother on April 20 regarding Schmitz's "Shoot-to-Kill" order and some "despicable" behavior of certain soldiers of the 22nd Infantry who were looting. He also made it clear that the majority of soldiers served the community well.{{clear}}

File:San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, People leaving the city - NARA - 522958.jpg

File:San Francisco earthquake and fire, April 18, 1906.webm

Property losses from the disaster have been estimated to be more than $400 million in 1906 dollars.{{citation|title=Casualties and damage after the 1906 Earthquake|url=https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/events/1906calif/18april/casualties.php|publisher=United States Geological Survey}} This is equivalent to ${{Formatprice|{{Inflation|US-GDP|400000000|1906}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}} dollars. An insurance industry source tallies insured losses at $235 million, the equivalent to ${{Formatprice|{{Inflation|US-GDP|235000000|1906}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}} dollars.{{Inflation-fn|US}}Brady, Matt. "1906 Quake Shook Up Insurance Industry Worldwide." National Underwriter/P&C [New York] April 18, 2006: 12–16. Print.

Political and business leaders strongly downplayed the effects of the earthquake, fearing loss of outside investment in the city which was badly needed to rebuild."The Great San Francisco Earthquake & Fires of 1906." The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Web. February 16, 2015. In his first public statement, California Governor George Pardee emphasized the need to rebuild quickly: "This is not the first time that San Francisco has been destroyed by fire, I have not the slightest doubt that the City by the Golden Gate will be speedily rebuilt, and will, almost before we know it, resume her former great activity".[http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/1906/06nsfmart.htm San Francisco History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924100838/http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/1906/06nsfmart.htm |date=September 24, 2015 }} The New San Francisco Magazine May 1906 The earthquake is not even mentioned in the statement. Fatality and monetary damage estimates were manipulated.[http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9539/9539.ch01.html The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609071907/http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9539/9539.ch01.html |date=June 9, 2007 }} Philip L. Fradkin

Almost immediately after the quake (and even during the disaster), planning and reconstruction plans were hatched to quickly rebuild the city. Rebuilding funds were immediately tied up by the fact that virtually all the major banks had been sites of the conflagration, requiring a lengthy wait of seven to ten days before their fire-proof vaults could cool sufficiently to be safely opened. The Bank of Italy (now Bank of America) had evacuated its funds and was able to provide liquidity in the immediate aftermath. Its president also immediately chartered and financed the sending of two ships to return with shiploads of lumber from Washington and Oregon mills which provided the initial reconstruction materials and surge.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

In an article written in 1913, John C. Branner, who was the first to begin study of the San Andreas fault in 1891San Andreas Fault: Cajon Pass to Wallace Creek, South Coast Geological Society, 1989, Vol. 1, p. 4 complained that the Federal Government of the United States had not conducted the serious studies that were needed to gather data about earthquakes on the west coast. He said public discussion was being stifled by fears that acknowledgement of earthquakes would drive away business and investors, and that geologists were told not to gather information about the 1906 earthquake, and certainly to not publish it. Some people went as far as to deny that an earthquake had happened. Branner argued that preparation for earthquakes was possible and necessary:[https://sfmuseum.org/1906/branner.html Earthquakes and structural engineering]

The only way we know of to deal successfully with any natural phenomenon is to get acquainted with it, to find out all we can about it, and thus to meet it on its own grounds. That is the way mankind has succeeded thus far, and it is safe to conclude that it is the only way it will ever succeed.

Eleven days after the earthquake a rare Sunday baseball game was played in New York City (which would not allow regular Sunday baseball until 1919) between the Highlanders (soon to be the Yankees) and the Philadelphia Athletics to raise money for quake survivors.[https://books.google.com/books?id=gqF84JTKCNoC&q=%22Sunday+ball+remained+off+limits+in+several+big-league+cities%22&pg=SA7-PA86 Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game], John Thorn, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2011. William James, the pioneering American psychologist, was teaching at Stanford at the time of the earthquake and traveled into San Francisco to observe first-hand its aftermath. He was most impressed by the positive attitude of the survivors and the speed with which they improvised services and created order out of chaos.{{Cite news|title=The Myth of the Panicking Disaster Victim|author=Johann Hari|date=March 18, 2011|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-myth-of-the-panicking_b_837440.html?ir=Impact|access-date=April 3, 2011|work=HuffPost}} This formed the basis of the chapter "On some Mental Effects of the Earthquake" in his book Memories and Studies.{{cite book|first=William|last=James|author-link=William James|title=Memories and studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yooTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA209|access-date=April 3, 2011|year=1911|publisher=Longmans, Green|pages=209–|isbn=9780722220276}}

H. G. Wells had just arrived in New York on his first visit to America when he learned of the San Francisco earthquake. What struck him about the reaction of those around him was that "it does not seem to have affected any one with a sense of final destruction, with any foreboding of irreparable disaster. Every one is talking of it this afternoon, and no one is in the least degree dismayed. I have talked and listened in two clubs, watched people in cars and in the street, and one man is glad that Chinatown will be cleared out for good; another's chief solicitude is for Millet's Man with a Hoe. 'They'll cut it out of the frame,' he says, a little anxiously. 'Sure.' But there is no doubt anywhere that San Francisco can be rebuilt, larger, better, and soon. Just as there would be none at all if all this New York that has so obsessed me with its limitless bigness was itself a blazing ruin. I believe these people would more than half like the situation."H. G. Wells, The Future in America: A Search after Realities (New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1906), pp. 41–42.

File:Sfearthquake.jpg tower, southwest down on Market Street]]

File:Agassiz statue Mwc00715.jpg statue in front of the Zoology building (now building 420), Stanford University]]

The earthquake was crucial in the development of the University of California, San Francisco and its medical facilities. Until 1906, the school faculty had provided care at the City-County Hospital (now the San Francisco General Hospital), but did not have a hospital of its own. Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, more than 40,000 people were relocated to a makeshift tent city in Golden Gate Park and were treated by the faculty of the Affiliated Colleges. This brought the school, which until then was located on the western outskirts of the city, in contact with significant population and fueled the commitment of the school towards civic responsibility and health care, increasing the momentum towards the construction of its own health facilities. In April 1907, one of the buildings was renovated for outpatient care with 75 beds. This created the need to train nursing students, and the UC Training School for Nurses was established, adding a fourth professional school to the Affiliated Colleges.{{cite web|title=1868–1898 – Introduction – A History of UCSF|url=http://history.library.ucsf.edu/story.html|website=history.library.ucsf.edu}}

The grandeur of citywide reconstruction schemes required investment from Eastern monetary sources, hence the spin and de-emphasis of the earthquake, the promulgation of the tough new building codes, and subsequent reputation sensitive actions such as the official low death toll. One of the more famous and ambitious plans came from famed urban planner Daniel Burnham. His bold plan called for, among other proposals, Haussmann-style avenues, boulevards, arterial thoroughfares that radiated across the city, a massive civic center complex with classical structures, and what would have been the largest urban park in the world, stretching from Twin Peaks to Lake Merced with a large atheneum at its peak. But this plan was dismissed during the aftermath of the earthquake.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} For example, real estate investors and other land owners were against the idea because of the large amount of land the city would have to purchase to realize such proposals.{{cite book|last1=Blackford|first1=Mansel|title=The Lost Dream: Business and City Planning on the Pacific Coast, 1890–1920|date=1993|publisher=Ohio State UP|location=Columbus|isbn=978-0-8142-0589-1|page=51}} While the original street grid was restored, many of Burnham's proposals inadvertently saw the light of day, such as a neoclassical civic center complex, wider streets, a preference of arterial thoroughfares, a subway under Market Street, a more people-friendly Fisherman's Wharf, and a monument to the city on Telegraph Hill, Coit Tower.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} Limestone used to reconstruct city buildings was quarried at the nearby Rockaway Quarry.{{cite web|title=Historic Resource Study for Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Mateo County.|url=https://www.nps.gov/goga/learn/historyculture/upload/san-mateo-hrs-part-iv-mori-point.pdf|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=August 4, 2023}}{{cite web|title=Limestone|url=https://www.nps.gov/places/000/limestone.htm|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=August 4, 2023}}

City fathers likewise attempted at the time to eliminate the Chinese population and export Chinatown (and other poor populations) to the edge of the county where the Chinese could still contribute to the local taxbase.{{cite web|last1=Hansen|first1=Gladys|author-link1=Gladys Hansen|title=Relocation of Chinatown Following the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake|url=http://www.sfmuseum.org/chin/relocate.html|website=The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco|publisher=Museum of the City of San Francisco|access-date=February 14, 2015|date=March 2014}} The Chinese occupants had other ideas and prevailed instead. Chinatown was rebuilt in the newer, modern, Western form that exists today. The destruction of City Hall and the Hall of Records enabled thousands of Chinese immigrants to claim residency and citizenship, creating a backdoor to the Chinese Exclusion Act, and bring in their relatives from China.[https://web.archive.org/web/20060414021037/http://www.chsa.org/publications/docs/1906quakeFAQ.pdf Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906: Its Effects on Chinatown] Chinese Historical Society of America. Retrieved December 2, 2006[http://www.historynet.com/magazines/american_history/3038306.html?page=5&c=y The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930210023/http://www.historynet.com/magazines/american_history/3038306.html?page=5&c=y |date=September 30, 2007 }} Niderost, Eric, American History, April 2006. Retrieved December 2, 2006

The earthquake was also responsible for the development of the Pacific Heights neighborhood. The immense power of the earthquake had destroyed almost all of the mansions on Nob Hill except for the James C. Flood Mansion. Others that had not been destroyed were dynamited by the Army forces aiding the firefighting efforts in attempts to create firebreaks. As one indirect result, the wealthy looked westward where the land was cheap and relatively undeveloped, and where there were better views. Constructing new mansions without reclaiming and clearing rubble simply sped attaining new homes in the tent city during the reconstruction.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}

Reconstruction was swift, and largely completed by 1915, in time for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition which celebrated the reconstruction of the city and its "rise from the ashes". Since 1915, the city has officially commemorated the disaster each year by gathering the remaining survivors at Lotta's Fountain, a fountain in the city's financial district that served as a meeting point during the disaster for people to look for loved ones and exchange information.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

File:Row of shacks, 1906 earthquake in San Francisco.jpg

File:San Francisco 1906 earthquake shacks Presidio.jpg

File:Surviving San Francisco earthquake shack on Bocana street.jpg

The Army built 5,610 redwood and fir "relief houses" to accommodate 20,000 displaced people. The houses were designed by John McLaren, and were grouped in eleven camps, packed close to each other and rented to people for two dollars per month until rebuilding was completed. They were painted navy blue, partly to blend in with the site and partly because the military had large quantities of navy blue paint on hand. The camps had a peak population of 16,448 people, but by 1907 most people had moved out. The camps were then re-used as garages, storage spaces or shops. The cottages cost on average $100 to build. The $2 monthly rents went towards the full purchase price of $50. The last official refugee camp was closed on June 30, 1908.Fradkin, Philip L. The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906: How San Francisco Nearly Destroyed Itself. Berkeley: University of California, 2005. Print. p.225

Most of the cottages have been destroyed, but at least 30 survived.{{Cite news|title=This map shows where 1906 earthquake shacks still exist in San Francisco today|url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2021/earthquake-shacks-sf-map/|access-date=April 23, 2024|work=San Francisco Chronicle}} Of the remaining structures, there is a historically restored pair in the Presidio. Others have been built on as part of private homes, with a high concentration around the Bernal Heights neighborhood. One of the modest {{convert|720|sqft|m2|abbr=on}} homes was purchased in 2006 for more than $600,000.[http://realtytimes.com/rtapages/20060418_quakehistory.htm Reality Times:] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070428180408/http://realtytimes.com/rtapages/20060418_quakehistory.htm |date=April 28, 2007 }} 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Housing Is Valuable Piece of History by Blanche Evans

A 2017 study found that the fire had the effect of increasing the share of land used for nonresidential purposes: "Overall, relative to unburned blocks, residential land shares on burned blocks fell while nonresidential land shares rose by 1931. The study also provides insight into what held the city back from making these changes before 1906: the presence of old residential buildings. In reconstruction, developers built relatively fewer of these buildings, and the majority of the reduction came through single-family houses. Also, aside from merely expanding nonresidential uses in many neighborhoods, the fire created economic opportunities in new areas, resulting in clusters of business activity that emerged only in the wake of the disaster. These effects of the fire still remain today, and thus large shocks can be sufficient catalysts for permanently reshaping urban settings."{{Cite journal|last=Siodla|first=James|title=Clean slate: Land-use changes in San Francisco after the 1906 disaster|journal=Explorations in Economic History|volume=65|page=1|doi=10.1016/j.eeh.2017.04.001|year=2017}}

File:1906 earthquake train.jpg locomotive.]]

During the first few days after news of the disaster reached the rest of the world, relief efforts reached over $5,000,000,Morris, Charles ed. The San Francisco Calamity by Earthquake and Fire. Intro by Roger W. Lotchin. Philadelphia : J.C. Winston Co., 1906; Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2002. {{Inflation|index=US|value=5,000,000|start_year=1906|r=-4|fmt=eq|cursign=$}}. London raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. Individual citizens and businesses donated large sums of money for the relief effort: Standard Oil and Andrew Carnegie each gave $100,000; the Dominion of Canada made a special appropriation of $100,000; and even the Bank of Canada in Ottawa gave $25,000. The U.S. government quickly voted for one million dollars in relief supplies which were immediately rushed to the area, including supplies for food kitchens and many thousands of tents that city dwellers would occupy the next several years.{{cite journal|last1=Strupp|first1=Christoph|title=Dealing with Disaster: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906|url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9gd2v192|website=escholarship.org|date=July 19, 2006|publisher=Institute of European Studies|access-date=February 23, 2015}} These relief efforts were not enough to get families on their feet again, and consequently the burden was placed on wealthier members of the city, who were reluctant to assist in the rebuilding of homes they were not responsible for. All residents were eligible for daily meals served from a number of communal soup kitchens, and citizens as far away as Idaho and Utah were known to send daily loaves of bread to San Francisco as relief supplies were coordinated by the railroads.{{cite book|last1=Greeley|first1=A.W.|title=Earthquake in California|date=April 18, 1906|publisher=Washington Government Print Office}}

Insurance companies, faced with staggering claims of $250 million,The New York Herald (European Edition) of April 21, 1906, p. 2. paid out between $235 million and $265 million on policyholders' claims, often for fire damage only, since shake damage from earthquakes was excluded from coverage under most policies.R. K. Mackenzie, The San Francisco earthquake & conflagration. Typoscript, Bancroft Library, Berkeley, 1907."[http://www.aetna.com/about/aetna/aag/history.html Aetna At-A-Glance: Aetna History] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061208010149/http://www.aetna.com/about/aetna/aag/history.html |date=December 8, 2006 }}", Aetna company information At least 137 insurance companies were directly involved and another 17 as reinsurers.For a list of these companies see Tilmann Röder, From Industrial to Legal Standardization, 1871–1914: Transnational Insurance Law and the Great San Francisco Earthquake (Brill Academic Publishers, 2011). Twenty companies went bankrupt. Lloyd's of London reports having paid all claims in full, more than $50 million,[http://www.lloyds.com/About_Us/History/A_city_rebuilt_a_promise_intact/Lloyds_role/ The role of Lloyd's in the reconstruction] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070708195157/http://www.lloyds.com/About_Us/History/A_city_rebuilt_a_promise_intact/Lloyds_role/|date=July 8, 2007}} Lloyd's of London. Retrieved December 6, 2006 thanks to the leadership of Cuthbert Heath. Insurance companies in Hartford, Connecticut, report paying every claim in full, with the Hartford Fire Insurance Company paying over $11 million and Aetna Insurance Company almost $3 million. The insurance payments heavily affected the international financial system. Gold transfers from European insurance companies to policyholders in San Francisco led to a rise in interest rates, subsequently to a lack of available loans and finally to the Knickerbocker Trust Company crisis of October 1907 which led to the Panic of 1907.Kerry A. Odell and Marc D. Weidenmier, Real Shock, Monetary Aftershock: The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and the Panic of 1907, The Journal of Economic History, 2005, vol. 64, issue 04, p. 1002–1027.

After the 1906 earthquake, global discussion arose concerning a legally flawless exclusion of the earthquake hazard from fire insurance contracts. It was pressed ahead mainly by re-insurers. Their aim: a uniform solution to insurance payouts resulting from fires caused by earthquakes. Until 1910, a few countries, especially in Europe, followed the call for an exclusion of the earthquake hazard from all fire insurance contracts. In the U.S., the question was discussed differently. But the traumatized public reacted with fierce opposition. On August 1, 1909, the California Senate enacted the California Standard Form of Fire Insurance Policy, which did not contain any earthquake clause. Thus the state decided that insurers would have to pay again if another earthquake was followed by fires. Other earthquake-endangered countries followed the California example.[http://www.rewi.hu-berlin.de/FHI/articles/0610roeder.htm See T. Röder, From Industrial to Legal Standardization, 1871–1914: Transnational Insurance Law and the Great San Francisco Earthquake (Brill Academic Publishers, 2011) and The Roots of the "New Law Merchant": How the international standardization of contracts and clauses changed business law] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080422193715/http://www.rewi.hu-berlin.de/FHI/articles/0610roeder.htm |date=April 22, 2008 }}

The 1906 Centennial Alliance[http://1906centennial.org/ 1906 Centennial Alliance] was set up as a clearing-house for various centennial events commemorating the earthquake. Award presentations, religious services, a National Geographic TV movie,{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060415105554/http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/greatquake/|url-status=dead|title=National Geographic TV Shows, Specials & Documentaries|archive-date=April 15, 2006|website=National Geographic Channel}} a projection of fire onto the Coit Tower,[http://www.sfcentennial.org/ projection of fire onto the Coit Tower] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20060111190739/http://www.sfcentennial.org/ |date=January 11, 2006 }} memorials, and lectures were part of the commemorations. The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program issued a series of Internet documents,{{Cite web|url=https://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/|title=series of Internet documents}} and the tourism industry promoted the 100th anniversary as well.{{Cite web|url=https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news_index/travel_news.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060426050332/http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/02/travel_earthquake.html|url-status=dead|title=Travel News|archive-date=April 26, 2006|website=consumeraffairs.com}}

Eleven survivors of the 1906 earthquake attended the centennial commemorations in 2006, including Irma Mae Weule (1899–2008),{{cite web|url=http://genealogy.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=genealogy&cdn=parenting&tm=16&f=00&tt=2&bt=6&bts=27&zu=http://www.mocavo.com/records/ssdi|title=Security Alert|publisher=genealogy.about.com|access-date=July 6, 2014}}{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} who was the oldest survivor of the quake at the time of her death in August 2008, aged 109.{{cite news|last=Nolte|title=1906 earthquake survivor Irma Mae Weule dies|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/15/BAQ712C258.DTL|work=San Francisco Chronicle|date=August 16, 2008|access-date=August 17, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080920125913/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2008%2F08%2F15%2FBAQ712C258.DTL|archive-date=September 20, 2008|url-status=live}} Vivian Illing (1900–2009) was believed to be the second-oldest survivor at the time of her death, aged 108, leaving Herbert Hamrol (1903–2009) as the last known remaining survivor at the time of his death, aged 106. Another survivor, Libera Armstrong (1902–2007), attended the 2006 anniversary but died in 2007, aged 105.{{cite web|url=http://www.ancientfaces.com/person/libera-era-armstrong/85594268|title=Libera Era Armstrong (1902–2007) – Hayward, California|publisher=ancientfaces.com|access-date=July 6, 2014}} Shortly after Hamrol's death, two additional survivors were discovered. William Del Monte, then 103, and Jeanette Scola Trapani (1902–2009),{{cite news|title=Jeanette Trapani obituary|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sfgate/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=137997169|date=December 31, 2009|access-date=January 2, 2010}} 106, stated that they stopped attending events commemorating the earthquake when it became too much trouble for them.[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/06/BA2J15P6M7.DTL]San Francisco Chronicle, 2009-02-07, Calling any '06 San Francisco quake survivors Del Monte and another survivor, Rose Cliver (1902–2012), then 106, attended the earthquake reunion celebration on April 18, 2009, the 103rd anniversary of the earthquake.{{cite news|title=SF remembers great quake on 103rd anniversary|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/04/18/state/n173741D72.DTL&type=printable|work=San Francisco Chronicle|archive-url=https://archive.today/20090721031953/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/04/18/state/n173741D72.DTL&type=printable|archive-date=July 21, 2009|url-status=live|access-date=June 24, 2009}} Nancy Stoner Sage (1905–2010) died, aged 105, in Colorado just three days short of the 104th anniversary of the earthquake on April 18, 2010. Del Monte attended the event at Lotta's Fountain in 2010.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Hundreds-gather-to-honor-victims-of-06-quake-3267005.php|title=Hundreds gather to honor victims of '06 quake|first=Carl|last=Nolte|date=April 19, 2010|website=San Francisco Chronicle}} 107-year-old George Quilici (1905–2012) died in May 2012,{{Cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/santacruzsentinel/obituary.aspx?n=george-frank-quilici&pid=157938784|title=George Frank Quilici Obituary|website=Santa Cruz Sentinel}} and 113-year-old Ruth Newman (1901–2015) in July 2015.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/03/us/ruth-newman-a-survivor-of-the-1906-san-francisco-earthquake-dies-at-113.html|title=Ruth Newman, a Survivor of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, Dies at 113|date=September 2, 2015|work=The New York Times|agency=Associated Press}} William Del Monte (1906–2016), who died 11 days shy of his 110th birthday, was thought to be the last survivor.{{Cite news|url=https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2016-01-11/last-survivor-of-1906-san-francisco-earthquake-dies-at-109|title=Last survivor of 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire dies at 109|last=Bender|first=Kristen J.|date=January 11, 2016|work=U.S. News & World Report|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706002050/https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2016-01-11/last-survivor-of-1906-san-francisco-earthquake-dies-at-109|archive-date=July 6, 2017|url-status=live|agency=Associated Press}}

In 2005 the National Film Registry added San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, April 18, 1906, a newsreel documentary made soon after the earthquake, to its list of American films worthy of preservation.{{cite web|title=Librarian of Congress Adds 25 Films to National Film Registry|publisher=Library of Congress|url=https://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2005/05-262.html|date=December 20, 2005|access-date=July 22, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090809003213/http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2005/05-262.html|archive-date=August 9, 2009|url-status=live}}

Working to establish his career as a photographer in San Francisco, Willard Worden seized the opportunity to capture history in the making, recording scenes of the fire and its aftermath using a handheld film camera and a four-by-five-inch view camera with glass negatives; he also photographed damage to the Stanford University campus. The resulting work fed the general public's fascination for sensationalist content, but was also of interest to seismologists, architects, and urban planners, as evidenced by inclusion of his photos in The California Earthquake of April 18, 1906: Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission, published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC, in 1908. Worden's genlatin silver prints documenting the destruction were later collected by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Oakland Museum of California.

After the destruction, all that remained of the Alban N. Towne mansion on Nob Hill were six marble columns and a lintel. When viewed from a certain angle, the empty porch perfectly framed the ruins of the smoldering City Hall. The haunting image became an icon of the 1906 earthquake, due largely to photographs by Worden. In 1909, the columns and lintel were relocated to Golden Gate Park, where, known as Portals of the Past, they became an enduring monument to the city's grief and a symbol of its endurance.Ganz, James A. [https://www.famsf.org/index.php/publications/portals-of-the-past-the-photographs-of-willard-worden Portals of the Past: The Photographs of Willard Worden], Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2015, pp. 17 and 20.

File:Willard Worden, firefighters battle blaze after 1906 San Francisco earthquake.webp|Firefighters

File:Willard Worden view from Kearny St after 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.jpg|View from Kearny Street

File:Willard Worden Observatory in Ruins.jpg|Observatory in ruins

File:Willard Worden Earthquake Damage to Union Street, 1906.jpg|Union Street

File:Willard Worden--Market Street--San Francisco--1906.png|Market Street

File:Willard Worden Portals of the Past 2 photos before and after move to Golden Gate Park.jpg|Portals of the Past: Portals of the Past, original location and after being moved to Golden Gate Park.

{{wide image|The burning of San Francisco, April 18, 06, view from St. Francis Hotel.jpg|1000px|San Francisco burning, view from St. Francis Hotel, at Union Square, Copyright, Pillsbury Pictures, 18 April 1906.{{Cite web|url=https://loc.gov/pictures/resource/pan.6a01913/|title=The burning of San Francisco, April 18, [19]06, view from St. Francis Hotel|website=Library of Congress|year=1906}} Geary Street is in center, terminating at Market Street. The San Francisco Call's domed Call Building, is right-center, at Newspaper Row. Its wood interior burned, but its steel, concrete and stone frame survived. }}

{{wide image|San Francisco 1906 fire 02 DA-SN-03-00958.JPEG|1000px|San Francisco, from Twin Peaks, looking down at Eureka Valley, with Market Street, center foreground leading towards the now-previous City Hall dome ruins on left, and The San Francisco Call's domed Call Building on right, center background circa April 18–21, 1906}}

{{wide image|Panorama of San Francisco disaster LCCN2007660415.jpg|1000px|alt=A 160-degree panoramic view of damage across the city after the disaster in 1906. In the distance, some large buildings remain, but most smaller structures are reduced to piles of rubble, with some chimney stacks remaining.|San Francisco 160-degree panorama, from Nob Hill, showing Telegraph Hill, Yerba Buena Island, Ferry Building tower, Fairmont Hotel, The San Francisco Call's domed Call Building, Potrero Hill, San Bruno Mountain, Twin Peaks, showing damage, Copyright, Kilborn & Burn, 31 May 1906{{Cite web|url=https://loc.gov/pictures/resource/pan.6a19976/|title=Panorama of San Francisco disaster|website=Library of Congress|year=1906}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2007660415/|title=Panorama of San Francisco disaster|website=Library of Congress|year=1906}} }}

{{Wide image|San Francisco 1906 earthquake Panoramic View.jpg|800px|Panoramic view of earthquake and fire damage, looking from Stanford Mansion site, Nob Hill, April 18–21, 1906. Note, from left to right (1) Yerba Buena Island, (2) Grace Cathedral, ...(20) the ruins of the now-previous City Hall dome at far right.{{Cite web|url=https://loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.05595/|title=Ruins of San Francisco after earthquake and fire, April 18 – 21, 1906, view from Stanford Mansion site|website=Library of Congress|year=1906}}}}

{{wide image|San Francisco in ruin edit2.jpg|1000px|San Francisco in ruins, waterfront in foreground, with sunset over Golden Gate in background, looking from {{convert|2000|ft|m}} above San Francisco Bay, by George R. Lawrence using kite aerial photography, copyright May 28, 1906. Market Street leads directly away from Ferry Building tower, center foreground, towards Twin Peaks, center-left background.{{Cite web|url=https://loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.07823/|title=Photograph of San Francisco in ruins from Lawrence Captive Airship, 2000 feet above San Francisco Bay overlooking water front. Sunset over Golden [Gat]e|website=Library of Congress|year=1906}}{{cite journal|last=Petterchak|first=Janice A.|title=Photography Genius: George R. Lawrence & "The Hitherto Impossible"|journal=Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society|issue=Summer-2002|url=http://dig.lib.niu.edu/ISHS/ishs-2002summer/ishs-2002summer130.pdf|access-date=March 20, 2009|pages=132–147|year=2002|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905190551/http://dig.lib.niu.edu/ISHS/ishs-2002summer/ishs-2002summer130.pdf|archive-date=September 5, 2008}}{{Cite web|url=http://robroy.dyndns.info/lawrence/kitelines97.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060928053322/http://robroy.dyndns.info/lawrence/kitelines97.html|archive-date=September 28, 2006|title=The Lawrence Captive Airship over San Francisco}}}}

• Will Irwin, The City That Was, a series of 1906 articles for The Sun, in New York City, and later as a booklet.Will Irwin. [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3314 The City That Was: A Requiem of Old San Francisco] (from newspaper) (gutenberg.org free download)Will Irwin [https://books.google.com/books?id=sBAVAAAAYAAJ The City That Was: A Requiem of Old San Francisco] 1906. New York: B. W. Huebsch, Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Library. 47 p. {{oclc|671922810}} (free download)[https://books.google.com/books?id=4QU8AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA266 review]
• San Francisco, 1936 disaster movie presenting a fictionalised account, starring Clark Gable
• The earthquake features in Tony Kushner's play Angels in America.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sparknotes.com/drama/angels/symbols/|title=Angels in America: Symbols|website=SparkNotes}}

{{Portal|San Francisco Bay Area|California|Earth sciences}}

• Committee of Fifty (1906)
• Earthquake engineering
• List of disasters in the United States by death toll
• List of earthquakes in 1906
• List of earthquakes in California
• List of earthquakes in the United States
• List of fires

{{Reflist|refs=

{{citation|title=Analysis of the tsunami generated by the Mw 7.8 1906 San Francisco earthquake|first1=E.L.|last1=Geist|first2=M.L.|last2=Zoback|year=1999|journal=Geology|volume=27|number=1|pages=15–18|doi=10.1130/0091-7613(1999)027<0015:aottgb>2.3.co;2|bibcode=1999Geo....27...15G}}

{{citation|title=Surface Displacements in the 1906 San Francisco and 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquakes|first1=P.|last1=Segall|first2=M.|last2=Lisowski|year=1990|journal=Science|volume=250|pages=1241–4|issue=4985|doi=10.1126/science.250.4985.1241|pmid=17829210|bibcode=1990Sci...250.1241S|s2cid=23913195|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1231002}}

{{citation|last1=Stover|first1=C.W.|last2=Coffman|first2=J.L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bY0KAQAAIAAJ|title=Seismicity of the United States, 1568–1989 (Revised)|series=U.S. Geological Survey professional paper 1527|year=1993|publisher=United States Government Printing Office|page=75}}

}}

{{Refbegin}}

• Double Cone Quarterly, Fall Equinox, volume VII, Number 3 (2004).
• {{cite book|title=Transactions. Paper No. 1056. The Effects of the San Francisco Earthquake of April 18th, 1906, on Engineering Constructions: Reports Of A General Committee And Of Six Special Committees Of The San Francisco Association Of Members Of The American Society Of Civil Engineers|author=American Society of Civil Engineers|author-link=American Society of Civil Engineers|year=1907|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XyoIAQAAIAAJ|access-date=August 15, 2009}}
• {{cite book|title=Earthquake in California, April 18, 1906. Special Report on the Relief Operations Conducted by the Military Authorities|last=Greely|first=Adolphus W.|author-link=Adolphus Greely|year=1906|publisher=Government Printing Office|location=Washington|url=https://archive.org/details/earthquakeincal01divigoog|access-date=August 15, 2009}}
• {{cite book|title=The San Francisco Earthquake And Fire of April 18th, 1906 And Their Effects On Structures And Structural Materials|last=Gilbert|first=Grove Karl|author-link=Grove Karl Gilbert|author2=Richard Lewis Humphrey|author3=John Stephen Sewell|author4=Frank Soule|name-list-style=amp|year=1907|publisher=Government Printing Office|location=Washington|url=https://archive.org/details/sanfranciscoear00gilbgoog|access-date=August 15, 2009}}
• {{cite book|title=The San Francisco Earthquake And Fire: A Presentation of Facts And Resulting|publisher=The Roebling Construction Company|location=New York|url=https://archive.org/details/sanfranciscoear00goog|access-date=August 15, 2009|year=1906}}
• {{cite book|title=The California Earthquake of 1906|last=Jordan|first=David Starr|author-link=David Starr Jordan|author2=John Casper Branner|author2-link=John Casper Branner|author3=Charles Derleth Jr.|author4=Stephen Taber|author5=F. Omari|author6=Harold W. Fairbanks|author7=Mary Hunter Austin|author7-link=Mary Hunter Austin|year=1907|publisher=A. M. Robertson|location=San Francisco|url=https://archive.org/details/californiaearth01fairgoog|access-date=August 15, 2009}}
• {{cite book|title=After Earthquake And Fire: A Reprint of the Articles And Editorial Comment Appearing in the Mining And Scientific Press|last=Mining And Scientific Press|author2=T. A. Rickard|author3=G. K. Gilbert|author4=S. B. Christy|year=1907|publisher=Mining And Scientific Press|location=San Francisco|url=https://archive.org/details/afterearthquake01frangoog|access-date=August 15, 2009|display-authors=etal}}
• {{cite book|title=San Francisco Relief Survey: The Organization And Methods Of Relief Used After The Earthquake And Fire Of April 18, 1906|author=Russell Sage Foundation|author-link=Russell Sage Foundation|author2=Charles J. O'Connor|author3=Francis H. McLean|author4=Helen Swett Artieda|author5=James Marvin Motley|author6=Jessica Peixotto|author7=Mary Roberts Coolidge|year=1907|publisher=Survey Associates, Inc. (New York), Wm. F. Fell Co. (Philadelphia)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hSHJAAAAMAAJ|access-date=August 15, 2009}}
• {{cite book|title=The Water Supply Of San Francisco, California Before, During And After The Earthquake of April 18, 1906 and the Subsequent Conflagration|last=Schussler|first=Hermann|author-link=Hermann Schussler|year=1907|publisher=Martin B. Brown Press|location=New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CqgNAAAAYAAJ|access-date=August 15, 2009}}
• {{cite book|title=The California Earthquake of April 18, 1906: Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission|last=Tyler|first=Sydney|author2=Harry Fielding Reid|author2-link=Harry Fielding Reid|year=1908|publisher=The Carnegie Institution of Washington|location=Washington, D.C.|url=https://archive.org/details/californiaearth03reidgoog|series=Volume one}}
• {{cite book|title=The California Earthquake of April 18, 1906: Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission|last=Tyler|first=Sydney|author2=Harry Fielding Reid|author2-link=Harry Fielding Reid|year=1910|publisher=The Carnegie Institution of Washington|location=Washington, D.C.|url=https://archive.org/details/californiaearth05reidgoog|series=Volume two}}
• {{citation|title=Source study of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake|url=http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/office/wald/1906/1906.html|year=1993|last1=Wald|first1=David J.|last2=Kanamori|first2=Hiroo|author-link=David J. Wald|author-link2=Hiroo Kanamori|last3=Helmberger|first3=Donald V.|last4=Heaton|first4=Thomas H.|author-link3=Donald V. Helmberger|author-link4=Thomas H. Heaton|journal=Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America|publisher=Seismological Society of America|volume=83|number=4|pages=981–1019|doi=10.1785/BSSA0830040981|bibcode=1993BuSSA..83..981W|s2cid=129739379|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090109015735/http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/office/wald/1906/1906.html|archive-date=January 9, 2009}}
• Winchester, Simon, A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906. HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 2005. {{ISBN|0-06-057199-3}}
• {{cite book|last=Bronson|first=William|title=The Earth Shook, the Sky Burned|url=https://archive.org/details/earthshookskybur00bron|url-access=registration|date=1959|publisher=Doubleday}}

;Contemporary disaster accounts

• {{cite book|title=A History of the Earthquake And Fire in San Francisco|last=Aitken|first=Frank W.|author2=Edward Hilton|year=1906|publisher=The Edward Hilton Co.|location=San Francisco|url=https://archive.org/details/ahistoryearthqu01hiltgoog|access-date=August 15, 2009}}
• {{cite book|title=The History of the San Francisco Disaster And Mount Vesuvius Horror|last=Banks|first=Charles Eugene|author2=Opie Percival Read|year=1906|publisher=C. E. Thomas|url=https://archive.org/details/historysanfranc00readgoog|access-date=August 15, 2009}}
• {{cite book|title=San Francisco in Ruins: A Pictorial History|last=Givens|first=John David|author2=Opie Percival Read|year=1906|publisher=Leon C. Osteyee|location=San Francisco|url=https://archive.org/details/sanfranciscoinr00alligoog|access-date=August 15, 2009}}
• {{cite book|title=San Francisco Through Earthquake And Fire|last=Keeler|first=Charles|year=1906|publisher=Paul Elder And Company|location=San Francisco|url=https://archive.org/details/sanfranciscothr00keelgoog|access-date=August 15, 2009}}
• London, Jack. [https://web.archive.org/web/20101005020013/http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/Journalism/sfearthquake.html "The Story of An Eyewitness"]. London's report from the scene. Originally published in Collier's Magazine, May 5, 1906.
• {{cite book|title=The San Francisco Calamity By Earthquake And Fire|publisher=J. C. Winston Company|last=Morris|first=Charles|year=1906|isbn=9780806509846|url=https://archive.org/details/sanfranciscocala00morrrich|access-date=August 15, 2009}}
• {{cite book|title=San Francisco's Great Disaster|last=Tyler|first=Sydney|author2=Ralph Stockman Tarr|year=1908|publisher=P. W. Ziegler Co.|location=Philadelphia|url=https://archive.org/details/sanfranciscosgr00tarrgoog|access-date=August 15, 2009}}
• {{cite book|title=Complete Story of the San Francisco Horror|publisher=Hubert D. Russell|last=White|first=Trumbull|author2=Richard Linthicum|year=1906|url=https://archive.org/details/completestorysa02whitgoog|access-date=August 15, 2009}}

{{Refend}}

• Hudson, James J. "The California National Guard: In the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906." California Historical Quarterly 55.2 (1976): 137–149. [https://militarymuseum.org/CNG1906.pdf online]

{{Commons category}}

• [https://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/18april/index.php The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211170826/https://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/18april/index.php |date=February 11, 2017 }} – United States Geological Survey
• [https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/sf-earthquake-and-fire/ The 1906 Earthquake and Fire] – National Archives
• [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/papr/sfhome.html Before and After the Great Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San Francisco, 1897–1916] – American Memory at the Library of Congress
• [http://www.geotimes.org/apr06/Travels0406.html A geologic tour of the San Francisco earthquake, 100 years later] – American Geological Institute
• [http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906/06.html The Great 1906 Earthquake and Fire] – Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco website
• [http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/earthquakeandfire/index2.html The Great 1906 Earthquake and Fire] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110827132604/http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/earthquakeandfire/index2.html |date=August 27, 2011 }} – Bancroft Library
• [https://www.shapell.org/manuscript/mark-twain-earthquake-1906/ Mark Twain and the San Francisco Earthquake] – Shapell Manuscript Foundation
• [https://archive.org/search.php?query=mediatype%3Amovies%20AND%20collection%3Aprelinger%20AND%20%2Fmetadata%2Fsubject%3A%22Earthquakes%3A%20San%20Francisco%2C%201906%22 Several film of the aftermath] – Internet Archive
• [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsmi/lcmp003.03734 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, April 18, 1906]
• [http://digitalcollections.ucsc.edu/cdm/search/collection/p265101coll10/searchterm/1906%20earthquake/order/title Seismographs of the earthquake taken from the Lick Observatory from the Lick Observatory Records Digital Archive, UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150611014146/http://digitalcollections.ucsc.edu/cdm/search/collection/p265101coll10/searchterm/1906%20earthquake/order/title |date=June 11, 2015 }}
• [http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist10/06timeline.html Timeline of the San Francisco Earthquake April 18 – 23, 1906] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303232519/http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist10/06timeline.html |date=March 3, 2016 }} – The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco
• [http://www.jbmonaco.com/earthquake/index.html JB Monaco Photography] – Photographic account of earthquake and fire aftermath from well-known North Beach photographer
• [https://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/tsunami/1906.html Tsunami Record from the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake] – USGS
• {{EQ-isc-link|16957905}}

{{Earthquakes in 1906}}

{{Earthquakes in California}}

{{Earthquakes in the United States}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1906 San Francisco Earthquake}}

San Francisco earthquake, 1906

1906

San Francisco, 1906

Category:Fires in California

San Francisco earthquake

Category:1900s in San Francisco

Category:1906 natural disasters in the United States

Category:1900s tsunamis

Category:April 1906 in the United States

Category:Supershear earthquakes

Category:Articles containing video clips