San Francisco - Alison Bing [11]
Just as Bierce predicted, all this non-taxable nature inspired the inevitable poetry. Bierce’s own protégé, ‘the uncrowned king of Bohemia’ George Sterling sang San Francisco’s praises in such corny, heartfelt panegyric as ‘City by the Sea,’ ‘The Evanescent City’ and ‘The Cool, Grey City of Love.’ Fittingly, he too has a panoramic park named in his honor Click here.
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DOUBLE DISASTER
No stranger to earthquakes, fires and other calamities, San Francisco was determined to be more prepared for disaster in the 20th century than it had been in the 19th. The city learned the hard way about seismic retrofitting: makeshift buildings often collapsed in minor tremors. Water wasn’t readily available, and in one fire in 1851 an entire 20-block radius was burned but for one building doused with a handy warehouse-worth of vinegar. Public funds were set aside for a citywide system of water mains and fire hydrants, but at the time, city leaders were more concerned with lining their pockets than structural overhauls. Abe Ruef, the city’s notorious political boss, and his hand-picked mayor, Eugene Schmitz, were eventually indicted on charges of extorting huge sums of money from whorehouses.
To attract more legitimate business, San Francisco needed to redirect attention from its notorious waterfront fleshpots and focus attention on its comparatively underexposed assets. The city was determined to be in the vanguard of the ‘city beautiful’ urban planning movement, and commissioned Chicago architect Daniel Burnham to give San Francisco a beaux arts makeover to rival Baron Haussmann’s Paris. This elaborate plan had just been finalized in April 1906 when disaster struck – twice.
On April 18, 1906, a quake estimated at a terrifying 7.8 to 8.3 on today’s Richter scale struck the city. For 47 seconds, the city emitted unholy groans and crashes as streets buckled, windows popped and brick buildings imploded. Wooden structures snapped into firewood were set ablaze by toppled chimneys, and ruptured gas mains spread the fire.
In a matter of minutes, San Franciscans discovered just how many corners had been cut on government building contracts. Unreinforced civic structures – even City Hall – collapsed in ruins. Since fire hydrants and water mains hadn’t been maintained, there was no way to contain fires Downtown. The sole functioning water source was a fountain donated to the city by opera prodigy Lotta Crabtree, the belle of San Francisco’s Bella Union (see the boxed text).
Assembly lines were formed to haul buckets of water from Lotta’s Fountain to combat Downtown blazes, but the water couldn’t reach the crest of steep Nob Hill fast enough. Mansions with priceless Old Master and Impressionist art collections went up in smoke; inhabitants were lucky to escape with their lives. Lotta’s Fountain would become a meeting place for dazed survivors seeking news of children, family and neighbors gone missing; descendants of 1906 earthquake survivors still meet there each April 18.
Federal support was brought in to rescue the flaming city and restore order. Under the direction of General Frederick Funston, firebreaks were created by dynamiting entire city blocks. But instead of containing the conflagration, the explosions set off new fires. Fire-fighters couldn’t haul equipment and water through the rubble-choked streets, so in a city surrounded by water on three sides, fires continued to rage. Homeless citizens took refuge atop Potrero Hill and Buena Vista Park, and watched their city and its dreams of grandeur go up in smoke.
After three days and two nights, most of the city was reduced to a smoldering black heap. The death toll mounted to an estimated 3000 people, plus an unknown number of prostitutes kept under lock and key. More than a third of the 300,000 people living in the city at the time were left homeless. Thousands of people left San Francisco for good, convinced its glory days were over.
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GOLDEN GATE PARK: A TALE OF CORRUPTION, GAMBLING & HUGS