The San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906

At approximately 5:12 am on April 18, 1906, a powerful earthquake ripped through the city of San Francisco. Roadways rose and fell like ocean waves. Crumbling walls and chimneys rained glass and bricks onto sidewalks and streets, and crowded rooming houses suddenly vanished into heaps of splintered wood. Yet San Francisco's ordeal had only begun.