California History: Earthquake of 1906

California History: Earthquake of 1906

The objective of this work is to write about a particular event in California History. This work will examine the California earthquake of April 18, 1906. This earthquake is one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history and resulted in more than 3,000 deaths, 225,000 and property damage exceeding $400,000,000.

It is reported that the ground broke open for 270 miles along the San Andreas rift. Reports state that the earthquake, which hit at approximately 5:12 A.M. On April 18, 1906, was of 8.4 magnitude and has been named one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. The destruction of the earthquake was soon matched and then exceeded by fires that raged throughout San Francisco.

REDWOOD IDENTIFIED as FIRE RESISTANT BUILDING MATERIAL

Elizabeth Hull writes that the 1906 earthquake "was one of the first natural disasters for which documentation through photography and motion picture film was available. As a result, many astonishingly vivid and well-preserved visual records of the event are housed in libraries and archival repositories across the country, including the National Archives, the Library of Congress, the Museum of the City of San Francisco, and the Bancroft Library of the University of California-Berkeley." (2006) Hull additionally writes that the fires had substantiated the claims made by the lumber companies in California that redwood was a fire-resistant building material. Hull points out that an article in the 'American Lumberman' six weeks following the disaster stated as follows: "This no longer is a theory but a fact that has been proved by a test which none can dispute as the most severe to which any lumber has been subjected in modern history.... It is hardly possible that this showing will not have the effect of bringing the California lumber into greater favor in all sections to which it now finds its way, and it may be instrumental in opening to it markets which heretofore have not received it with open arms." (Hull, 2006) Hull states that the "the desired effect of promotional efforts like those of the Redwood Car Shippers Bureau was realized. In the midst of the timber boom that followed from San Francisco's massive rebuilding efforts, California redwood was in the highest demand." (2006)

II. REBUILDING EFFORT

The work of Fradkin entitled: "The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906: How San Francisco Nearly Destroyed Itself, notes that loggers "...worked unceasingly during daylight hours. Mills operated on 'full double-time.' The amount of redwood shipped to San Francisco in October 1906 was double that of the same month in the previous year, which had also been a record month." (in Hull, 2006) Hull writes that in a short period of time yet one characterized by "...intensive and indiscriminate logging of forests in northern California, Oregon, and Washington" following the 1906 earthquake "...undoubtedly took its toll on the land, a toll that has not been widely examined by historians and other social scientists. The topic of the impact of recovery on the land and on the timber and lumber industries remains ripe for further investigation." (2006)

III. SAN ANDREAS FAULT

Robert Cherny writes in the work entitled: "San Francisco and the Great Earthquake of 1906" that the earthquake resulted from a sudden shift in the San Andreas fault along a distance of approximately 296 miles. The epicenter of the quake is stated to have been "a short distance out at sea, near the southwestern part of San Francisco." (2007) it is the estimation of geologists that the fault "moved as fast as 1.7 miles per second." (Cherny, 2007) it is reported that a San Francisco policeman stated that the entire street was "undulating. It was as if the waves of the ocean were coming toward me." (Cherny, 2007) the source of the disaster is stated to have been the San Andreas fault which is located "...ten miles or more deep, at the meeting point of two tectonic plates, the Pacific and North American. Geologists describe the San Andreas fault as right-lateral strike-slip, which means that the Pacific side of the fault is slowly moving horizontally northward, usually by an inch or two per year. At times, however, the fault may suddenly lurch as much as several feet. Such movements deep in the earth produce earthquakes -- and such movements along the San Andreas fault and its branches have produced most of the largest earthquakes in American history." (Cherny, 2007)

It is reported that new buildings with steel frames during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake "held up quite well. Buildings of brick or other masonry construction, without steel or iron reinforcement, were most likely to be damaged. Some lost entire walls. Brick chimneys collapsed all over the city. The fire chief was killed when a chimney fell into his bedroom. The most dangerous parts of the city were areas that had once been lakes, creeks, marshes, or branches of the bay, and that had been filled in to create solid ground for construction. Such areas tend to liquefy in an earthquake. Structures on such fill land suffered the most. Some wood-frame buildings, especially on fill land, were knocked off their foundations, but most other wooden structures held up reasonably well. "(Cherny, 2007)

Fires in the city were fueled by gas due to broken gas lines and the broken water lines rendered the fire hydrants useless in fighting the fires spreading throughout the city. Cherny states that the "...densely populated wooden buildings south of Market Street and home to the city's working class, were the first to burn. The first burned for three days and became a firestorm with intense heat and significant winds arising from the firestorm." (2007)

The army troops commanded by General Frederick Funston at the Presidio were ordered to assist in keeping order in San Francisco and to help fighting the fires. Meanwhile "...donations poured in from individuals, organizations, and governments, some $9 million in all. Mayor Schmitz, suspected of corruption, appointed a special committee of 50 prominent citizens, led by former mayor James Phelan, to distribute the funds and plan relief and recovery. The Army set up twenty refugee camps, some on Army land and some in the city's parks, which remained for a year or more. The Army and the city's public health officials quickly restored sanitation and thereby averted a potential public health disaster. "(Cherny, 2007) There was an urgency among business leaders in San Francisco to quickly rebuild out of the fear that "...any delay would endanger their place as the financial and commercial center of the West. Business leaders and leaders of the construction unions, who had been warring for years, declared a truce." (Cherny, 2007)