-
Title
-
San Francisco Earthquake, 1906
-
Description
-
Regional Narrative
-
Date
-
1906
-
Creator
-
Frank H. Shoemaker
-
Identifier
-
321301-00627
-
Rights
-
To inquire about usage, please contact Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. These images are for educational use only. Not all images are available for publication.
-
extracted text
-
- “3 Citoe, Ape 2,
who ¢ fell in henind the Ped Cross an¢ supply
wagons and formed a sorry procession up Market
Street, the only way as yet cleared fron the forry y
dullding. The destructivencss of the firs hac §
dono away with most of the visible damage of the
earthquake, but the ground and pavenent showed it =
plainly. ‘Great holes were open in places, where
tne paving hed dropped several feet. foue of ti
cer tracks were thisted beyond possinie usefulno
and sunken several foot below the paraljel tracks. 4
Piles of brick and stone lay on every side, only
@ narrow course being open at places, (Site streets
were so choked witn wreckage as to be alsolutely
impessadle. Many of the wells still standing
leaned at a dengerous angle, and the air, stil,
hot in many places, was laden with the siekening
odor of burning things. steel structures\ferther
up the street, on solid ground, were most of then
intect as regards the ?rawe, but in many cased
thore wore cracks running from base to sumd%,\ and
tons of brick and stone had fallen frou tnetr\ fronts
and sides. Iron corniges hung in ribbons from)
many tuildings, waving in the wind 8 hundred or two 4|
hundred feet above tne strect, banging against or. EY
rubbing the fronts of the tuildings witn the mgt
ungodly shrieks and groens; this devils’ concert a
being I think the one thing wnich will sti¢k in of |
menory es moat distinctive of this most eerie journey, —
No.one talked; it wes as silent 3 processicu, that
afternoon up Herket Stweet, as thcugh it were, 5
funorale ce
The Merchants Rfchange Building, 15 aterted, |
which hed housed the Southern Pacific general, offices,
was visible to tie north, with blackenet windows, —
intact as to frame, hut completely turned cuts ‘Th
Paulese and Grand Hotels held their forms, but pyory
ounce of combustible material wes consumed. Phe
Chronicle Building wen standing, tut the Bxamition
had left only enough of its walls to serve ae 24
identification and to menace the people in the
streets
At Stoo¥ton we were stopped by aynausi ting
fertier up Merket Street, so we went north to Union
Square - Mr, Young and I - the "procession" hav:
broken at Stockton, We cut across past tre <
monument, twisted out of plumb; past the st. Francis
with ita scorched sides and blackened winowa; then
up Powell to Nob H3.i with ite Felrmount Hotel and
the Grocker and Plood mansions -- the hotel stanging
x
