Washington street pier, destroyed by earthquake. This was one of the few piers destroyed by the earthquake. bon is to-day a beautiful city of more than No one can tell when an earthquake will occur nor is there any reason to believe that earthquakes will occur again in San Francisco. San Francisco has had an occasional temblor; it will probably have an occasional tremor in the future but it is as unlikely. to be visited by destruction as New York or Chicago. It may be a hundred years before the world sees such another awful calamity and San Francisco is optimistic, hopeful and brave. It has taken hold again and it is clearing away its ruins. It looks to the future and not to the past. It is hopeful and not cast down. In two years it will have rebuilt its temples and palaces and will command the Balboan seas. Its ships will supply the Orient and California and its great city will be spoken of as the wonders of a prosperous age. Sentries tread the gloomy, smoking piles, for treasures lie hidden in these cavernous depths. Hidden millions, the testimony of years of thrift, the substantial reward of industry, evidence of man's labor and craft are in buried vaults of steel. The records of commerce are here too and valuables that lie as dross amid squalid belongings must once again find ownership of man. Here and there some The larger part of the dockage of great building still stands, spared by some freak of the holocaust and on the edge of the smoking heap, the quieted hell's cauldron, man is vigilant. The sentry treads his beat, the human hive is again busy, the apathy is wearing off, humanity is alive and moving. The brotherhood of man is triumphant, the work of rescue is going on and cheer and comfort is coming to the people from a great nation. It has been stirred to the deepest of its deeps and it has answered the call as never before answered the world the call of those distressed. Succor comes and with it the star of hope is risen. BUILDING OF THE CITY BEAUTIFUL. The area devastated approximates fifteen square miles or about ten thousand acres. In this area was situated 100 banks, sixty to seventy of the finest business blocks in the world and some 25,000 inhabitants, besides 40,000 transients. The homes of 150,000 people still stand unharmed. San Francisco still has its great Potrero ship yards, its docks and many of its manufacturies. San Francisco, devastated by fire, is still one of the world's big cities. Now will come the building of the city beautiful. The heights will be crowned by The earthquake occurred at 5:13 a. m., the eighteenth of April. This picture shows the extent and fury of the fire at 11 o'clock in the morning of the same day. buildings calculated to stand the shock of ages and the mistakes of the past are to be remedied in the future. Fire has reclaimed to civilization and cleanliness the Chinese ghetto and no chinatown will be permitted in the borders of the city. Some other provision will be made for the caring of the Oriental. It seems as though a divine wisdom directed the range of the seismic horror and the rage of fire god. Wisely the worst was cleared away with the best. Intact upon its hill stands the Fairmont and from this center will radiate the wonderful new city of the Western seas, the city beautiful. are still The Burnham plans for such a city have been adopted, altered or modified, in some directions and enlarged in others. Each mount will be occupied by some feature characteristic to its best development. Many of the larger buildings standing and will be restored. The earthquake had little or no effect on the modern steel structure and even such buildings as the Palace Hotel, the well-built, old-style buildings, suffered little beyond shaking off the outer facing of plaster and breaking a few windows. The lesson to be learned is not one that demands protection from seismic disturbances but a certitude of The upheaval of street railway tracks of the United Railways at Seventeenth and Valencia, caused by the sinking of the street into a subterannean stream. The movement of the earth caused a shifting of the street of over four feet and a consequent "buckling" of the track. Leidersdorf and Clay street. The structure on the left is a market and it was destroyed by earthquake. The market and garden truck people were delivering goods at the time of the sesmic disturbance and many horses were killed. the The bulging of the street car tracks at the Mission street frontage of The great people's play ground, Golden Gate Park, was utilized as a camping ground for the homeless. |