San Francisco and Chicago are cities that will always be remembered during their time of massacre. Many were lost but through the losses they gained new structures that protect the citizens today and the ones yet to come. Although the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 were both horrific events that created huge destruction on the United States, they took a big toll in people’s lives in many different ways and encouraged them to take charge and rebuild back their hometowns that they loved.
Mrs. Rayfield wrote a great article about the devastation left over after this massive fire. I found that her accounts were very detailed and had good pictures to go along with them. I decided to use this source in my essay because she also showed the good effect that the fire had on the city not only the bad. She had a complete different point of view.
There was a massive earthquake in San Francisco during the year of 1906. The country of United States went through great loss because of this massacre. Nearly 250,000 people had become homeless as the result of this great earthquake. Winchester pointed out the question: How unprepared was America when this disaster hit? He compared the San Francisco earthquake to the Katrina hurricane in 2005.
Both Twain and London explain two dreadful San Francisco earthquakes that took place in 1865 and 1906. However, they target different aspects of the destruction the earthquakes caused. As Twain’s focus’ on the destruction of the people during the 1865 earthquake, London focus’ on the destruction of the city in the 1906 earthquake.
...re situations, from a razed city to devastated citizens. The calamity caused the city to crumble and the government to pay extreme amounts of money. In addition, residents of San Francisco and other surrounding areas suffered the consequences. Thousands died, but even more faced the encumbrance of homelessness. The earthquake caused fires that went on for as long as three days. Nevertheless, San Francisco transformed its ashes into a beautiful city full of fascinating buildings in a matter of weeks. 1906, a year of a significant natural disaster, also became a year that spawned knowledge in the field of seismology. No one will ever forget the appalling chain of events that occurred during the early twentieth century. The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 has not only educated scientists, but it has also made San Francisco the jewel of the West Coast that it is today.
study of the San Andreas fault system." (USGS) When the 1906 earthquake struck scientist set
This photograph, taken by George Lawrence from a series of kites five weeks after the great earthquake of April 18, 1906, shows the devastation brought on the city of San Francisco by the quake and subsequent fire.
In the early twentieth century, San Francisco, a bustling city full of people from diverse cultures, stood in the midst of the Second Industrial Revolution. At this time, the brilliant inventions of airplanes, automobiles, and radios were changing the everyday lives of many. San Francisco had just recovered from the four-year burden of the bubonic plague (“Bubonic”). However, right when things were going back to normal, a destructive earthquake hit the city on April 18, 1906. Although the shaking lasted for less than a minute, the devastated city had crumbled buildings and a substantial loss of lives. The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 consisted not only of earthquakes, but also of even more destructive fires; it had a scarring effect on the city and its people, yet it gave much of the knowledge that seismologists have today and allowed San Francisco to stand as a place of intriguing buildings and structures.
Since record keeping began, sometime in the 18th century, there have been 13 major earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault. However, radiocarbon dating has proved that earthquakes have been happening along the fault for thousands of years. The earliest recorded earthquake happened on July 28, 1769, and was experienced by Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola while he camped along a small lake he named “San Andreas Lake”. Other notable early earthquakes occurred in 1836, 1838, 1865, 1868, and 1890. Unfortunately, there is no seismographic data recorded for these early earthquakes since it was not until 1887 that seismographs began being used in the United
We have seen a constant change of our environment afflicted by the human, nature and nurture influence, creating and reinventing what we know of a culture, city and society. San Francisco, a city of multi-diverse neighborhoods of highly trending culture, commerce, fashion and finance, has been immensely affected by it; seeing a consistent development before and after the 1906 earthquake which destroyed over 80% of San Francisco. The earthquake and the subsequent fires, one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the United States, took from the people of the Bay Area their houses and families, leaving roughly 3000 deaths and at least 270,000 people homeless. Nonetheless, this mayor disaster also gave the opportunity for a rebuild
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was one of the largest disasters in American history. Practically overnight the great city of Chicago was destroyed. Before the fire there was a large drought causing everything to be dry and flammable, then a fire broke out in the O’Leary’s barn and spread throughout the city. Many attempts were made to put out the fire but there were too many errors and problems in the beginning. After the fire many people were left homeless and had to help build their city again (Murphy, 39)
Before the San Francisco earthquake, not much was understood about earthquakes like how and where they occurred, or the destruction that could occur and the theory of plate tectonics was over a half-century away. Now scientists can answer the following questions: where a strong quake will likely happen, how probable it is, how intense it will be, how will the infrastructure fare, where to avoid building critical structures, and how do we design and build earthquake resistant structures. Scientists that flourished after this earthquake were Lawson, Reid and Gilbert but the most significant discovery is credited to Henry Fielding Reid, Professor of Geology at John Hopkins University. Most of the building structures that were destroyed or damaged were made out of wood. About 24,500 buildings out of the 28,000 buildings were built with wood structures and the other 3,500 buildings structures were made out of brick. With almost 90 percent of the structures being wood, fires and gas caused most of the
"The Most Terrible Was Yet To Come": San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906." Map of Time A Trip Into the Past. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2014.
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was one of the largest earthquakes in the United States. Even though it only lasted less than a minute, the damages and aftermath of the earthquake were disastrous. These damages were not just from the earthquake, but also from other hazards that occurred because of it. It also had a huge effect on the people living in San Francisco. Many people, the government, and other countries helped the city of San Francisco with relief goods like food and clothing. The city used up their resources in order to rebuild the city and spent a lot of money. This earthquake also started a scientific revolution about earthquakes and its effects.
At 5:12 a.m. on April 18th, 1906, the California city of San Francisco was awoken by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Chaos erupted with the earthquake leading to fire break outs throughout San Francisco (Cameron and Gordon. Pgs 69-73).The earthquake and the resulting fires caused destruction to majority of the city with buildings crumbling and igniting into flames. Many people died along with thousands and thousands of people being left homeless. This devastating earthquake left the city and United States in a financial crisis. Although the 1906 earthquake was one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, the city of San Francisco was able to overcome these substantial physical, social and economic impacts it had.