San Francisco Earthquake & Fire: April 18, 1906

Footage of the aftermath of the great San Francisco earthquake, which struck on the morning of April 18, 1906, destroying a large part of the city.

This film is great, but made even more great when used as a companion piece to "A Trip Down Market Street". The other film shows a bustling city, lots of commerce and everyone is busy. A thriving city. Some of it is a little staged, but generally speaking it offers an accurate depiction of California life.

And then this film, not long after, shows very much the opposite. People look depressed, buildings are in shambles. The locations are not exactly the same, so it is not a perfect before and after, but this one also was in the vicinity of market Street, so it's not too far off. And good for them, they rebuilt and became stronger than ever.

Here's an important and saddening newsreel register of one of the worst American disasters of all time, the earthquake that devastated San Francisco in 1906, a panorama of horror and destruction that caused 3000 casualties and more than half of the city being burned down, shattered and destroyed not only by the terrible tremors but also due to many subsequent fires resulted from it.

The images can't be compared to many of the disasters we see on the news these days (like the one that happened in 1989, widely shown on TV interrupting a sports event) but we can get a sense of how dramatic the situation was , with many constructions torn apart and some still on fire and smoke; you don't get to see corpses or horrific images but you can feel the desperation the many survivors faced while getting transfered to safer part of town, transported by a ferry boat. Truly haunting. Available through the Library of Congress and their YouTube channel. 6/10