On April 18th, 1906, an earthquake of magnitude 8.3 rocked San Francisco. The subsequent firestorm, and efforts to contain it, destroyed 508 city blocks. But San Franciscans were eager to rebuild their city.
"Visitors who immerse themselves in 1906 history might think San Franciscans are lucky there's a still city here at all...[The San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906] measured 8.3 on the Richter scale...The San Andreas fault shifted along 296 miles, and the ground trembled for nearly a minute, the cobblestone pavement opening and closing like a mouth...After the shaking stopped, what followed seems like a string of incredibly bad luck compounded by bad decisions...Natural gas escaping from cracked pipes and ripped-away chandeliers was ignited by embers left in cooking stoves; the wind fed the fire, spreading it between the blocks of wooden houses...The strong wind, lack of water and dynamiting kept San Francisco burning for three days. When the fire finally went out...508 city blocks, or about 5 square miles, of San Francisco had been reduced to ash and twisted metal."
FULL STORY: A city of great magnitude
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Harvard GSD Executive Education
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
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NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service