Ruins of San Francisco

Ghastly book of photographic views depicting the horror of the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fire.

The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake is one of the deadliest (and costliest) natural disasters to ever hit the United States. The quake, with an estimated magnitude of 7.9, hit in the early hours of April 18th and started fires that killed over 3,000 people and consumed nearly 80% of the city over a period of several days. Nearly 300,000 people were left homeless from a population of just over 400,000.

This book of photographs is one of many published chronicles of the horror, and shows the immense destruction of public and private property in addition the human impact. Much of the rubble was pushed into the bay to extend the waterfront, and reconstruction was largely complete by the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition.