Amazing panoramic view of San Francisco after the 1906 Earthquake.

[AsahinaKimi]

San Francisco lies in ruins on May 28, 1906, about six weeks after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. It was taken from a camera suspended on a kite, perhaps 1,000 feet above the city. It is one of the most well-known photographs of George R. Lawrence. The tower of the Ferry Building can be seen at the bay end of Market Street, which can be clearly seen all the way to the foothills of Twin Peaks. The water in the foreground is San Francisco Bay, with the Golden Gate to the right, rear. Note the absence of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which had yet to be constructed


to see the photo in its full size click the link below and the photo;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:San_Francisco_in_ruin_edit2.jpg

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. That is truly amazing, especially in full screen.

Thank you for bringing it here for us to see!

[AsahinaKimi]

8. my dear CaliforniaPeggy

You are most welcome! I love old photos of the city..its amazing to see what was where, back then. I know the area the baseball stadium was built in..so I saw that area. Also fisherman's wharf has changed so much. I would imagine Chinatown is in the same place, and even so..its all too cool for words!

[chalky]

2. Wow. Taken with a camera suspended from a kite, according to the description.

And the original image is huge! 18" x 48". I'd love to see that photo in person.

sorry - I go a little ga-ga over antique images.

[AsahinaKimi]

4. I added the text from

The wiki page. That is pretty amazing photograph. City Hall had to be totally rebuilt.

[calimary]

18. That is amazing all by itself. Taken with a camera suspended from a kite.

Pretty mind-blowing!

Thanks for posting this, AsahinaKimi!

[AsahinaKimi]

24. Yeah it must have been a huge kite

cameras were probably not small back then. I thought at first it might have been taken by a blimp, but apparently not.

[kentauros]

38. As I recall (from reading about flying panoramic cameras from kites years ago)

they often used box kites, because they remain more stable in place than diamond or other shaped kites. Plus, a box kite can be as large as you can build it, for whatever amount of weight you need to lift. You can still find Army surplus box kites that were used to lift aerial antennas, too.

I would bet there are books out there just on this kind of photography, for flying still and pano cameras from kites. Thanks for sharing this image

[MADem]

33. Are you a fan of SHORPY?

Subscribe (it's free), and they'll email you three to five random images a day. I'm a real fan--I love my Shorpy fix! Sometimes you see things that amuse, other times, stuff that makes you a bit sad--but it's never dull: http://www.shorpy.com/

[FredStembottom]

39. Shorpy is just great!

...and don't forget that whoever it is behind this site gives the old images the most astounding clean-up imaginable.

Be sure to view his before/after page and marvel at how bad/how good the images are.

[MADem]

41. I would love to see a family member pop up on Shorpy one day! nt

[FredStembottom]

47. That would be startling....

...but cool.

My mother and family were in the fringes of the Oklahoma dust bowl... so it could happen, I guess.

[montana_hazeleyes]

46. Love website MADem

Thanks for posting it.

[phasma ex machina]

3. k&r

[panader0]

5. Born in San Francisco, on this day, 62 years ago.

Yee-Haw! Sept 7th, 1950. Go Giants!

[AsahinaKimi]

7. otanjoubi Omedetou gozaimasu! (Happy Birthday)

[PlanetBev]

20. Look over your shoulder

I'm right behind you...November 17, 1950. We're seniors for sure, now.

Happy Birthday!

[madrchsod]

6. the zoom is cool....thanks for posting.

[AsahinaKimi]

9. You are welcome...

I was looking for automobiles in the photo..I guess there were not many of those in 1906. Horse and carriage probably. I did see what looked like trolly cars.. and maybe even cable cars.

[Brother Buzz]

10. Cool!

For people wanting to pursue a lot more 1906 SF earthquake photos, the San Francisco Public Library online collection is the place (oh, I suggest you pack a lunch. LOL):

http://sflib1.sfpl.org:82/search~S0?/dSan+Francisco+Earthquake%2C+Calif.%2C+1906./dsan+francisco+earthquake+calif+1906/-3,-1,0,E/2exact&FF=dsan+francisco+earthquake+calif+1906&1,1721,

[montana_hazeleyes]

15. Thank you also

for posting. I've lived all my life in S. F. Bay Area and have a very high interest in " The Big One". Went through "the big one "of our time here in 1989 quake that was 7.1 We've been pretty quiet since then . Not much activity.

There has been so much activity in "The Ring of Fire" though, that I kind of feel our time may be coming again soon.

[AsahinaKimi]

17. I know, right?

I was a teenager during the last. I haven't forgotten it.. And the next big one scares me to death, because it could be way bigger, and a lot worse. I also consider the fact, the bay area could also experience its first Tsunami if the quake happens off shore.

[Brother Buzz]

25. I remember a Tsunami in the bay area back in 1964, only we called it a tidal wave

Granted it wasn't huge, but there was a lot of damage along the waterfront close to my house.

[montana_hazeleyes]

27. Please don't be afraid.

Make sure you are prepared- non perishable food, water, extra meds you may need, flashlights. battery radios, extra batteries etc. There are many websites you can find for preparing for quakes etc.

We also have very high building codes here.

Geological time is way different than our time. There may not be a large quake here for a long , long time. If there is ( I know It's hard)but try and stay as calm as possible. So you can think of the best action to take.

I doubt a quake on the San Andreas would generate a tsunami. It is not the kind of fault that usually cause those.

[AsahinaKimi]

32. I saw the USGS map and one time there was a 3 pointer

off the coast. We were lucky, it didn't generate a tsunami, but I am probably a mile and half up the hill to the ocean. I don't doubt that the one, like they had in Japan, would engulf my place.. given enough power to generate it. I hope that day never happens, because really, how much warning could you get, when high water rushes towards the beach.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. Want to try something wild?

Linux has a feature with it's 3d cube that does a 360 wrap around background.

[Solly Mack]

12. Wow.

[montana_hazeleyes]

13. Wow, thank you

for posting this. I've never seen this photo. It is really special. It's great to zoom also.

[ThoughtCriminal]

14. My Grandfather was there during the earthquake

At the time, he was working on one the ships that made runs between San Francisco and Skagway. When the earthquake hit, his ship was docked in San Francisco.

[AsahinaKimi]

22. I was told by someone that in 1989

They were out by Golden Gate Bridge and actually saw the bridge sway back and forth a bit. If I had been on that bridge, I probably would have screamed.

[CountAllVotes]

28. My great grandfather was there too!!

Great grandpa (a native of San Francisco born abt. 1860) was in the militia during the 1906 quake. The policy was shoot to kill for any/all looters.

He was on Front street doing checks and came across what was said to be a saloon we were told as kids.

Great grandpa went into this "saloon" (aka "wine rooms" as they were called ... ) and the place was ablaze and he spotted a grandfather's clock burning on the wall.

He salvaged that clock from the quake and carried it with him. My late father restored that clock and today it is hanging somewhere in a siblings house I hope.

I have many stories about that quake as most of my family were living there on Folsom street and out by Mission Dolores when it hit. Quite the fine mess it was.

Many of the "refugees" left San Francisco and moved across the bay to Oakland/Berkeley where many of them still live today.

[Kablooie]

16. Wow! What a picture.

Have you seen this?
It's a movie of riding the trolley all the way down Market Street 4 days before the earthquake.

[AsahinaKimi]

19. Yes and...

Didn't someone make a colorized version of that? I thought I saw something like that once.

[Kablooie]

26. Here is the same movie of Market Street right AFTER the earthquake.

http://archive.org/details/0254_San_Francisco_Earthquake_Aftermath_1906_01_21_25_00

By the way, archive.org is a great website to explore. Tons of old books, movies, audio and other public domain materials.

You can even use the Wayback Machine to search websites and see how they looked in the past.
Some go back as far as 1996.

[MADem]

35. That is one of my favorite films! nt

[Nostradammit]

21. Shazam! That is one AMAZING photo!

It is simultaneously beautiful and horrific. What a tenacious city, San Francisco.

Thanks for posting this.

[AsahinaKimi]

23. Yeah...

Maybe we should have been called "Phoenix", since it rose from the Ashes...
But that would have been rather confusing.

The city is something else!

[Nostradammit]

29. One Phoenix is enough.

In fact, one Phoenix is more than enough, as anyone who's been there can testify.

San Francisco has a heart like no other city I've been to. My wife had to attend a conference there several years back and I tagged along, spending the days walking all over the city. I had so many profound experiences in such a concentrated period of time - encounters with people I'll never forget. Some of them a little scary but most were beautiful. I can't imagine what living there must be like.

[AsahinaKimi]

31. Its great...

I grew up here, so I never had a fear of any neighborhoods. Never had any problems in any of them.

[Nostradammit]

34. I came down from Oregon before the Iraq War with a busload of college students

for a protest, and the atmosphere was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Love and goodwill and righteous anger combined in the air and hung over the city all night. Even the cops were high on the whole thing, you could see it in their faces.

I frickin' love your city.

[ZenLefty]

30. It's both humbling and inspiring to me

Humbling that nature, in the form of an earthquake, can devastate so much of what we have built in such a short time.

Inspiring that we can rebuild after a disaster like that, and make it ten times better.

And amazing, of course, that some guy over a hundred years ago thought to suspend a camera on a kite and take a picture like that.

[area51]

36. Great pic! n/t

[FirstLight]

37. Holy wow!

Looking at the small size, it's not nearly as amazing as the detail on the big size! shit!!!!

I was most awed by the total wipeout of the landscape, not many buildings left, just chimneys. And the tents! There's little clusters in different neighborhoods...thinking about how it must have been to live there while waiting for the city to be rebuilt....just wow.

thanks so much for sharing...i grew up in oakland/berkeley hills, had friends who lost everything in the firestorm, and lived thru the Loma Prieta myself...it was wild.

[TheManInTheMac]

40. Thank you for posting this. So much devastation...everything's broken, it's a haunting photo.

[ananda]

42. Wow!

That IS amazing!

thanks

[Adsos Letter]

43. Excellent post! Some beautiful old ships in that photo.

What an incredible sight! We're driving in to the City this afternoon for a meal and an evening walk at Crissy Field. Your post is a good reminder of just how devastated the City was by the earthquake/fire combo.

Using the zoom feature on the full-size download gives some amazing detail. Lots of little tent encampments scattered throughout the ruins, including one that looks like it might be military down at the docks to the right of the Ferry Building. Troops were stationed in the City until July, for security reasons, so seeing an encampment down by the wharves makes sense. Here's a photo of some of those guys:

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[countryjake]

44. Thanks for this amazing photo!

Kick and recommend!

[AsahinaKimi]

45. Was curious to find some photos of Chinatown after the 1906 earthquake..