The 1906 Earthquake of San Francisco
On Wednesday, April 18th, 1906, at 5:12 a.m., a
great earthquake struck the city of San Francisco, California. The
magnitude of the earthquake was 7.9. There were about 3,425 deaths in the city, and 189 other deaths
in the Bay Area. Between 227,000 and 300,000 people were
left homeless out of a population of about 410,000. Shaking was felt from Oregon
to Los Angeles, and inland as far as central Nevada. San Francisco lies on the San Andreas Fault,
which forms the boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American
Plate. The epicenter of the quake was two miles from the city, at Mussel Rock.
The earthquake and resulting fire
are remembered as one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the
United States. The earthquake and fire would leave a long-standing and
significant impression 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, with a population of about 410,000. Over a
period of 60 years, the city had become the financial, trade and cultural
center of the West.
During the
first few days after news of the disaster reached the rest of the world, relief
efforts reached over $5,000,000. Many companies and organizations raised and donated
money to help out. The overall cost of the damage from the earthquake was estimated
at the time to be around $400 million ($8.2 billion in 2009 dollars).
