This is the most complete version of the historic film, "A Trip Down Market Street," combining the best elements of prints from Prelinger Arichives and Library of Congress. This twelve minute film of a cable car ride down Market Street was made on April 14th, four days before the earthquake struck.

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A Trip Down Market Street

A slice of San Francisco as seen from Nob Hill 

The tall domed building is the Call Building

 

 

 

 

California Street Hill in 1901

 

 

 

 

 

San Francisco's Sutro Baths.

 

The night before the 1906 earthquake, renowned Italian tenor Enrico Caruso performed in San Francisco. The world-famous opera singer escaped the city’s Palace Hotel, where he was staying at the time of the quake; however, the hotel itself was destroyed later that day by fire.

 

 

 

 

The Palace Hotel cost $7 million to create and sat on two-and-a-half acres. When it opened in 1875, the Palace Hotel was the largest hotel in the country and it boasted a bar tended by 30 men. It was appointed with linen, marble, wood and china from all over the world. It was equipped with state-of-the-art water and safety systems, and had a seven-story atrium for guests to drive their carriages into. The Palace hosted such prestigious visitors as Ulysses Grant, Rudyard Kipling and Emperor Dom Pedro III of Brazil.

 

San Francisco's Chinatown before the earthquake and fire.

 

The Mark Hopkins mansion on Nob Hil. The home had 70 rooms and cost three and a half million dollars when it was built in 1878. 

It burned on April 19th, the second day of the fire.

On April 18, 1906, at almost precisely 5:12 a.m., local time, a foreshock occurred with sufficient force to be felt widely throughout the San Francisco Bay area. The great earthquake broke loose some 20 to 25 seconds later, with an epicenter near San Francisco. Violent shocks punctuated the strong shaking which lasted some 45 to 60 seconds ... The earthquake and subsequent fires devastated San Francisco, California, leaving more than 3,000 people dead and destroying more than 28,000 buildings. The quake ruptured the San Andreas fault to the north and south of the city, for a total of 296 miles, and could be felt from southern Oregon to Los Angeles and inland to central Nevada.

People fleeing from the flames resting in Union Square. 

All the buildings shown here eventually burned.

 

This photograph by Arnold Genthe shows Sacramento Street and approaching the fire.

The greatest devastation resulted from the fires that quickly followed the quake. The initial tremors destroyed the city’s water mains, leaving firefighters with no means of combating the growing blaze, which burned for several days and consumed much of the city.

Hayes Valley and the 'Ham and Eggs Fire'.

After the quake, in Hayes Valley, a woman lit up her stove to prepare breakfast. But what she did not know was that the chimney (above her stove) was badly damaged. This started the 24-hour long ‘Ham and Eggs’ fire, which destroyed parts of City Hall and Market Street. The site of the original spark in Hayes Valley is stated as 395 Hayes Street.

The Palace Hotel on Market Street

 

 

The view of San Francisco burning as seen from Alamo Square in the Western Addition

 

 

 

 

 

 

San Francisco in 1906 had a population of approximately 400,000 people.

San Francisco City Hall

The ruins of San Francisco seen from the tower of the Ferry Building

Shorpy image of "Palace Hotel, New Montgomery Street." San Francisco in the aftermath of the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906. 8x10 glass negative. 

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Shorpy image of San Francisco after the earthquake and fire of April 1906. "Turk Street, from the corner of Market and Mason." Detroit Publishing Company. 

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Point Reyes, north of San Francisco, on April 18, 1906.

 

Not only was the earthquake one of the worst catastrophes in US history, it was the first major natural disaster that had its effects recorded photographically.

 

Union Square

Congress responded to the disaster in several ways. The House and the Senate Appropriations Committees enacted emergency appropriations for the city to pay for food, water, tents, blankets, and medical supplies in the weeks following the earthquake and fire. They also appropriated funds to reconstruct many of the public buildings that were damaged or destroyed.

Ruins of the Temple Emanu-El on Sutter Street in San Francisco

 

 

Shorpy image of "Panorama from roof of Ferry P.O., San Francisco." Aftermath of the April 1906 earthquake and fire. 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co.

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Shorpy image of San Francisco, April 1906, after the earthquake and fire that leveled much of the city. "Cooking in the street." Detroit Publishing glass negative. 

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Shorpy image of "The Flood Mansion, Nob Hill." After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. 8x10 dry plate glass negative.

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Shorpy image of "Van Ness Avenue -- limit of fire, San Francisco." Aftermath of the devastating earthquake of April 1906. 8x10 inch glass negative.

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Shorpy image of "Edge of burned district, corner of Franklin and Sacramento Streets, San Francisco." Aftermath of the April 18, 1906, earthquake and fire. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company.

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Shorpy image of "Market Street toward FerryBuilding." San Francisco after the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company.

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Shorpy image of San Francisco in the aftermath of the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906. "Up Market Street from Montgomery Street." 8x10 glass negative.

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Shorpy image of San Francisco, April 1906, after the earthquake and fire that leveled much of the city. "Cooking in the street." Detroit Publishing glass negative. 

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Shorpy image of "Ferry Building, San Francisco, 1906." Aftermath of the earthquake and fire. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company.

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Shorpy image of San Francisco after the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906. "Looking up California Street from Sansome Street." At the top of the hill is the Fairmont Hotel, seen in yesterday's post. Detroit Publishing Co.

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Shorpy image of "Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, amid ruins of earthquake and fire." The hotel, near completion when disaster struck, opened the following year. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company.

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Shorpy image "Looking up Market St. from near Ferry." Another look at San Francisco in the aftermath of the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906.

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Shorpy image of "Nob Hill from roof of Ferry Post Office." San Francisco after the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906. Detroit Publishing glass negative. 

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The survivors slept in tents in city parks and the Presidio, stood in long lines for food, and were required to do their cooking in the street to minimize the threat of additional fires. The San Francisco earthquake is considered one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history.

 

 

Despite the utter devastation, San Francisco quickly recovered from the earthquake, and the destruction actually allowed planners to create a new and improved city. A classic Western boomtown, San Francisco had grown in a haphazard manner since the Gold Rush of 1849.

Working from a nearly clean slate, San Franciscans were able to rebuild the city with a more logical and elegant structure. The destruction of the urban center at San Francisco also encouraged the growth of new towns around the San Francisco Bay, making room for a population boom arriving from other parts of the United States and abroad.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the most complete version of the historic film, "A Trip Down Market Street," combining the best elements of prints from Prelinger Arichives and Library of Congress. This twelve minute film of a cable car ride down Market Street was made on April 14th, four days before the earthquake struck.

Click here: 

A Trip Down Market Street