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INTRODUCTION
On April 18, at 5:12am, the worst earthquake ever to be recorded in the history of California shook the city of San Francisco. ... The impacts of these events on the people of San Francisco, as well as on the city itself, were unfathomable. ... Everyone in San Francisco was prepared to leave the city, as “the belief [was] firm that San Francisco [would] be totally destroyed.” The earthquake had shaken the city from its very foundations and appalled the inhabitants. The people of San Francisco, while devastated by the earthquake, had ample cause for gratitude regarding the timing and circumstances of the event. ... However, the earthquake itself was not the most destructive part of the calamity. ... Thousands lost everything as a result of the Great Earthquake, but the determination and dedication of the people led to a city rebuilt greater than it had existed before.
While newspaper headlines declared that San Franciscans were fearful and distraught, the reality portrayed in eyewitness accounts gives an entirely different picture. The purpose of this paper is to look at how the story of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 reflects indomitable courage and extraordinary perseverance on the part of the city’s inhabitants. Many would expect the people of San Francisco to have felt discouraged and hopeless in the wake of the Great Earthquake. However, the “spirit of the people of San Francisco [at that time was] the grandest and most practically valuable asset which the metropolis ever ha[d] possessed. ... On the contrary, eyewitness accounts, as well as stories from relatives of those who survived the earthquake, relay the strength, determination and appreciation felt by San Franciscans at the time. While the damage to the city itself is of utmost importance in comprehending the vastness of this tragedy, the focus of this research is the imprint left in the hearts of San Franciscans and the love for their city.
MAIN FACTS AND EVENTS
The magnitude of the Great Earthquake of 1906 was originally measured on the Rossi-Forel scale as a number nine (out of 10) because the Richter scale was not yet in use at the time. A number 9 refers to an earthquake that throws down badly built buildings and gives the streets of the city a large amount of debris. It is about as severe an earthquake as can be experienced without total destruction, without great yawning chasms and complete annihilation of life and property. ... The immensity of the event left the city of San Francisco with broken water mains and gas lines, and fire quickly spread throughout the city.
Within minutes of the earth violently shaking San Francisco, fires broke out from ruptured gas mains, overturned stoves, crossed electrical wires, and the liberation of chemicals by breakage of containers. ... Within a few days of the earthquake, supplies of food and other materials started arriving by train from other cities as the news of San Francisco’s tragedy reached the rest of the nation. Rain on April 21 quenched the fire, and the next morning the people of San Francisco saw that the city, as it had been, no longer existed.
PEOPLE OF THE CITY
To understand the true meaning and impact of the events that began on April 18, 1906, it is necessary to consider the accounts and experiences of those who lived through the disaster. While many might think that the people of San Francisco would have been full of despair and hopelessness, that was not the case. Contrarily, as one writer for the San Francisco Chronicle stated, “This [was] no time to brood over the misfortunes which ha[d] befallen [them], but to meet the conditions with the same heroism that the earlier residents…of the city met similar calamities.” Many optimistic citizens were thankful that the effects of the earthquake were limited to mainly poor and antiquated structures that had outlived their usefulness as it was. ... There was little pause in the hearts of citizens regarding the rebuilding of San Francisco. Almost immediately following the earthquake, plans to rebuild a “more beautiful, more substantial, and more harmonious city” emerged and the desire to move ahead became overwhelming. ... Blumer cordially told the Dean that he could not go to New Haven until he was no longer needed in San Francisco.
Approximate Word count = 3541
Approximate Pages = 14.2
(250 words per page double spaced)
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