The San Francisco Earthquake: The Deadliest in American History

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[@IntotheShadows]

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[@TheSh4dowgale]

No!!!

[@MisterPlanePilot]

Nah Nord is far superior

[@4362mont]

IN 1906, at Boudin's bakery, the home of the city's iconic sourdough bread still sold today, Mrs. Boudin put the *starter* (water, flour, and yeast mixture) in a large bucket, and carried it out and hauled it away to safety from the flames. It survives, and is still the strain used in their bakery this minute.

[@jakem7200]

I have a great 1906 family story; The family was on vacation at the Russian River and only the father was at home that night. He survived, the house was lost in the fire. As the fire came he only left with two things, his pet parrot (which his wife hated) and his camera (which his wife hated) imagine how thrilled she was when they finally made it back to the city days later to be met with the news they lost everything… except the parrot and camera!

[@4362mont]

She was lucky not to have lost her husband. I think not losing a spouse would be so joyous that you'd toss Polly a cracker & smile for the camera.

[@jtheglin1640]

I like to imagine the parrot had some witty quips as they arrived home lol, as unfortunate it is im glad your family made it out ok, that's what matters

[@captainCrunchChris]

Smart man he can make money off the parrot and pictures with the camera

[@pop5678eye]

I appreciate channels that still put work into their script and imagery instead of the hundreds of click-baits generated each day through AI that hardly even pretend anymore to resemble reality.

[@user-rm4ez8pb6x]

Simon, I grew up in Southern California. We usually kept our window open as we were only a few miles from the ocean. I distinctly remember a night where I was woken to a noise. The noise was rising and coming closer. It was an earthquake. You will never, ever, forget the noise of the earth protesting.

[@auttosave7320]

I did too, and sometimes a particularly noisy semitruck rumbling by will trick me for a moment, even though I’m nowhere near an earthquake zone anymore. Old habits die hard!

[@cotati76]

At least California doesn’t have an earthquake season. Thank god for that. I recently moved out of state and am still getting used to hurricane season. I miss the hell out of the Bay Area but it just got to be too expense for me. It’s definitely the most beautiful state. I’ve been to most for work. CA has mountains, forests, hills, sierras for fun in the snow, desert, big cities, redwoods, amazing beaches, deserts like the Mojave. You can’t name another state that has that many beautiful natural places to enjoy. Most states have one or two of those things but not all of them.

[@jeanneprieto5219]

I grew up just south of San Francisco and remember Loma Prieta. I don’t remember what it felt like, but I absolutely remember the sound…it was like a freight train. My dad was almost on the cypress structure but decided to grab a bite at a drive thru, which he never did. If he hadn’t done that, he might have been squished.

[@carlycaye90]

The fear in the first 3 or 4 seconds of a quake.... is this it or god forbid will it escalate.

[@-._.-._.-Sully-._.-._.-]

I got to experience my first (noticeable) earthquake in 2019 when visiting some family friends in LA which was a 7.1 I believe. I don’t remember a sound probably because we were inside eating dinner but about smacked my face on my plate. The ground itself moving was one of the weirdest feelings I had ever experienced. Although being from Alabama (queue the incest jokes) where I’ve experienced both hurricanes and tornadoes many of times, I have to say earthquakes are definitely the least terrifying. Especially given the building codes in developed countries prone to earthquakes result in buildings that can easily withstand said earthquakes. Hurricanes you have fair warning and can even build hurricanes proof houses if you live right on the coast although very expensive. Tornadoes on the other hand are straight out of a nightmare and are extremely unpredictable. Through on top the fact that in southern states the tree cover is so dense it’s pretty much impossible to spot them from a distance not to mention where I live they’re much more common at night. You may not be able to see them but you can feel the sharpe change in air pressure, and the sound will send shivers down your spine.

[@kaned5543]

My family lived in Oakland at the time. The tales that were passed down include a story about my great-great uncle being able to read the newspaper outside at night from the light of the fires across the Bay. For context, the distance we're talking about is around 10 MILES.

[@kryscat5481]

Longtime SF resident here, and I always point out the Golden Firehydrant to visitors. Fed by a spring, it's said to have been the only working hydrant in SF after the 1906 quake, and was used to save many buildings. Located at Church and 20th St, at the top of Dolores Park, it's painted gold every year on the anniversary of the quake.

[@cotati76]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing!!

[@neonnoir9692]

No sane person is stepping foot into the poop Capital of tbe US.

[@alisoneccleston8673]

They remembrance starts at Lottie’s fountain and ends at the golden fire hydrant. There are also cisterns to fight fires, property of the fire department just like Captain Sullivan had asked for.

[@kryscat5481]

@@alisoneccleston8673One year on the anniversary, in the late 90's I think, I saw a group of people walking along 20th Street in elaborate Edwardian attire. They told me they were walking the perimeter of the fire. Fyi, it's "Lotta's Fountain".

[@TheKetansenapati]

Really Appreciate you moving the Sponsor bit to the beginning of the video…. Interuption during the video is distracting

[@Man-Made-of-wood]

And bloody horrible if you ur trying to fall asleep too it. NORD VPN!!!! shouting in my ear as I’m dozing off 😂

[@Yltimate_]

Hit the right side of your screen 6 times 😉

[@ARIXANDRE]

Yes. This

[@Philfluffer]

The promotional sponsor specifies where in the video they want the ad shown. Simon and his team are the ones that have to accept or reject those terms. At least it wasn’t "Better" Help

[@mulrooneyfamily7502]

Wah wah wah. I'm not creative enough to have my own channel so I'll cry about someone else's.

[@dianamars1442]

We constructed a second water system in San Francisco just for emergencies- it’s completely independent of the domestic water supply. You can see where the cisterns are by circles of bricks embedded in the street pavement. The hydrants have colored tops.

[@SPDinMS3]

My great grandmother was born the day after the earthquake and she said that her mother survived b/c her mother lived on a boat in the dock.

[@Jocelynxoxo169]

That’s so interesting!!

[@Bill-jc1fy]

As a young man my grandfather left his home in Seattle and moved south to San Francisco in about 1905 and found work playing piano there. He told my father that the worst thing that followed the quake were the constant fires which sprung up everywhere making it impossible to get around the city.

[@davidstrnad4882]

An interesting story about the San Francisco Earthquake and Enrico Caruso: As earlier mentioned, Caruso was a famous tenor, known and lauded by many. During one of his tours, he ended up visiting the White House. After making faces and joking with some of the staff, Caruso was met by President Theodore Roosevelt. At first, Caruso wanted to apologize for his goofy behavior, but the president just laughed it off. Roosevelt ending up giving Caruso a signed picture of himself, which Caruso would go on to take with him on his tours. Flash forward to the day in question, Caruso is awoken from his room at the old Palace Hotel to the sound of rumbling. Frantically getting to his feet, he rushes out of the hotel with his belongings just as the earthquake shakes through San Francisco. Then the fires came, and Caruso watched as the hotel he was just staying in crumbles and burns. Frantically, thousands try to escape the city by heading towards the boats, crowding the docks. Caruso, with very little English, tried at first to get through, thinking his celebrity would earn him safe passage, but this thought was drowned out by the mob. Caruso remembered the autographed picture in his belongings, so he quickly grabs it and holds it up. The harbormaster notices the picture and tells the famous tenor to come forward. Recognizing the photo as President Theodore Roosevelt, the harbormaster states, “Any friend of Teddy, is a friend of mine.” Caruso is able to board the ferry to Oakland along with other traveling members of the opera. Caruso vowed never again to return to San Francisco and even drew a sketch of what it looked like.

[@johnharris6655]

The only thing that saved San Francisco from the fires in 1989 was the fireboat Phoenix, which the city was in the process of retiring. The Phoenix pumped sea water through a portable hydrant system and there is video of citizens running with fire hoses miles from the boat to put the fires out. Now San Francisco has 3 fire boats along with other cites in the bay area and Delta.

[@Benson_aka_devils_advocate_88]

That opening black and white film of a trolly ride is the only one of downtown San Francisco and was taken just a week before the earthquake destroyed almost everything you see.

[@DaveSandine]

That's super interesting, but with a name like that I'm not sure we can trust you. 😊

[@jameshudkins2210]

@@DaveSandine They used the angle of the Sun to tie it down to the day and hour. It was a reverse of celestial navigation.

[@sarahdalley2614]

Where were the other videos shot then?

[@coltringcoltring7448]

The footage you talk about, i saw on the yt channel History colored

[@thehangmansdaughter1120]

Imagine having to shoot someone as an act of mercy. Poor man. The Christchurch earthquake saw a woman's arm being amputated under the rubble, using a rubber band and local anesthetic just so she could be taken to hospital for her internal injuries. That was bad enough, at least we didn't have to shoot anyone.

[@Soturi92]

5:15 anyone who’s been in an earthquake definitely remember the rumble noise before things start shaking. Not many people talk about the noise!

[@auttosave7320]

I commented the same timestamp! Sometimes a particularly noisy semitruck approaching still tricks me, even though I’m nowhere near an earthquake zone anymore, haha!

[@Soturi92]

@@auttosave7320 seriously. When I was a child in Alabama, the rumble woke me up before my bed shook left and right for 20 seconds. I thought it was a heavy train and went back to bed only to watch the news lol they were like we had an earthquake. I was completely oblivious lol

[@DarkFire1536]

I would imagine that sound is as terrifying as the sound of a tornado. I have lived in Texas and Georgia most of my life, although, I was lucky enough to live in LA in the mid to late 70's. The tornado sound is really scary when coupled with the warning sirens.

[@Soturi92]

@@DarkFire1536 the tornado cliché of “oh it sounded like a freight train” no it doesn’t. Maybe to some, but the ones I’ve been in sounded more like the inside of a large plane landing. The reverb of the wind and pressure in a tornado is more similar to that.

[@vonkug]

Fun fact, the deadly range on the 1906 quake was as far North as Ft Bragg and as far South as Gilroy.

[@Kiwi-ICU-RN]

Interestingly, I lived in a place called Great Barrier Island, Motu Aotea, off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand. A lot of the kauri wood (which is a beautiful native timber, super strong), was logged from there in the early 1900s. Most of it went to the rebuild of San Fran post earthquake.

[@mrnosaj71]

Very cool, San Fran has those beautiful wood houses of all colors.

[@celticlass8573]

I've heard so many people say it's fine, San Francisco hasn't had a major earthquake in decades, it's safe. It's astounding how many people don't realize the opposite is true. There have been two massive earthquakes there in just over a century, and the fact that nothing big has happened since 1989 is *not* a good sign.

[@johna1160]

I'll wager NONE of those "many people" you claim to have heard make such a statement were Californians. We are not in denial.

[@celticlass8573]

@@johna1160 I don't know where everyone was from, but some were definitely from San Francisco, actually. I've also heard people from LA say similar things about The Big One, aka it won't happen in their lifetime, based on nothing but their own denial. When Mount St Helen's was about to blow, there are taped interviews of people saying the same thing, that nothing was going to happen. It's Human nature.

[@kantemirovskaya1lightninga30]

I grew up in Cali-almost 80 now... Earthquakes all the time in the 60-70-80s

[@P.Hermano]

And there are a lot more people here now. Same 7 miles x 7 miles. Same grid. Lot of transplants.

[@jameshudkins2210]

Over a lifetime there will be several earthquakes. Only a few are serious. It could be in the morning or long after I am gone. We just don't know. On any given day it probably won't happen.

[@darstar217]

I couldn’t find it again, but I remember seeing a video where someone was interviewing people on the street in San Francisco. He asked them what happened in 1906 and a lot of people didn’t know.

[@benjaminroberson1967]

My ancestors lived through this. I have a large newspaper panoramic print of the destruction. My family also has a mid 1800s wall clock that fell to the floor during the quake.

[@tophers3756]

A friend had an antique stereocope (think old Viewmaster) with dozens of images from the aftermath of this disaster. It was quite something to see it all in 3D.

[@davenaldrich3985]

I would love to see you cover the Galveston, TX Hurricane in 1900. The book, Issac's Storm, goes into horrid detail about the devastation. It also goes into the arrogance of American Meteorologists who refused to heed the reports of their Cuban counterparts, who tried to warn them that the storm was gaining strength.

[@paigeharrison3909]

Yeah, Cuban meteorologists had a pretty good record and long years of practice in the area. Americans are like "we speak English and Americans are the best at everything. " Still the worst natural disaster in American history by far yet the San Francisco earthquake gets so much more coverage.

[@jazdia78]

I lost family in the 1900 Galveston hurricane. My great-grandmother survived it, but refused to talk about it.

[@DarkFire1536]

​@@jazdia78It must have been horrific. So sad for her. My grandfather flew bomber planes for the navy in WWII. He never , ever talked about the war. 😢

[@Jayjay-qe6um]

In 2005 the National Film Registry added San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, April 18, 1906, a newsreel documentary made soon after the earthquake to its list of American films worthy of preservation.

[@ladygrndr9424]

One of the interesting things not covered in this video, is that San Francisco was also in the midst of a Bubonic Plague outbreak at the time of the Earthquake. They had just started to get a handle on it (after a prolonged period of pretending you couldn't catch it if you weren't Chinese) when citizens were forced into refugee camps and the rat problem got even worse. They did a great video on it over at AskAMortician

[@FallacyBites]

Yup! To this day (ever since about 1899) thecamerican west has a wild animal reservoir of bubonic plague. And acquaintance of mine--her uncle in Colorado caught it from his dog, and they were both diagnosed by the veterinarian. Fun Times!

[@johnhazlett3711]

The Richter scale is actually a logarithmic line. Richter scale one, almost totally unnoticeable. Maybe a dog barks. But up each point, the power of the earthquake measurement increases by 10. So a Richter scale quake of 5, there are things falling out of the shelves, and there might be minor damage to structurally sound buildings and bridges..

[@SoundShinobiYuki]

I’m glad for the modified Mercalli scale for “How badly did the earthquake actually AFFECT the area”, since it can vary so much depending on how shallow or deep the quake was, and what kind of fault line and surrounding geology- and in some cases, how good a country’s earthquake-proof building codes are. (It ranges from I- not felt, only detectable with seismograph, to XII- Catastrophic, complete destruction and permanent change to surrounding terrain.)

[@mormornie]

@@SoundShinobiYuki your comment prompted me to look it up, and apparently in San Francisco area the earthquake is considered an XI (Extreme) on the Mercalli scale

[@cotati76]

I’m born and raised in the Bay Area and experienced the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. I can’t imagine one being even more powerful because the streets had ripples in them like they were water and all the metal street light poles looked like cooked spaghetti waggling around. It was very frightening. I can’t remember how long it lasted but it felt like forever. The freeway in the east bay collapsed and had multiple casual as did the top road on the bay bridge. After that I was always terrified to drive over the bridges when I wasn’t afraid at all before it happened. Thank god there isn’t an earthquake season. My girlfriend at the time was a HS cheerleader and her team was given the opportunity to perform at the World Series in Oakland and said the people there were stunned at first. Nobody knew what to do. Scary.

[@willowhofmann7409]

That was my 9th birthday. 10/17/1989 And as a gift my parents took me to that world series game in San Francisco. Maybe not the best game I've ever seen but it was sure was memorable. Frankly I'm astounded the Candlestick Park was still standing after that.

[@cotati76]

@@willowhofmann7409that’s wild. I was in 8th grade so I must have been 13. Damn I’m getting old. Time is moving too fast. Hopefully there isn’t a big one like that for a very long time.

[@vpolite1]

True story. I was sitting on the toilet at the moment the '89 'quake hit.

[@bassman87]

I was 3 during the earthquake, my first core memory was of my mom rushing in to the room to pick me up from the babysitters with a very concerned look on her face. For context my father is a retired CHP officer and responded to the Bay Bridge collapse, so she was rightfully worried. There is actually a video somewhere on the internet of my dad giving a press report on the collapse.

[@BardovBacchus]

That was my 19th birthday @@willowhofmann7409. I was home on leave from the navy before catching up with my first duty station overseas. I was watching TV with my Dad while waiting to go out with friends. Dad was watching the Series and I remember the TV station going off for a bit, which didn't happen much in the late 80s. When the broadcast came back one said, "We just had an earthquake here!" I have got some wild things for my birthday but this was the only earthquake

[@Mikkelltheimmortal]

This is such an important history lesson that it's good that new videos are made every few years about it.

[@ninz5250]

San Francisco gets a lot of hate in today’s media but I’m very proud to have been born and raised there. I grew up there in the 90s and it was a wonderful place to be a kid. My dad was in a skyscraper during the 1989 earthquake, without a lot of these modern advancements he wouldn’t be here today, and neither would I!

[@ultraviolet7838]

The media loves to hate on San Francisco for political reasons. Most of it is lies, and the rest is true of almost every major city. But at least it can bring the cost of living down!

[@EuTrabalhoParaSagres510]

Same here. Grew up in the City in the 90s. Can't say it doesn't deserve the hate, it's a post apocalyptic wasteland today. I prefer Oakland to be honest. But I moved to Europe anyways and I can tell you life is Hella better for me!

[@elizabethmcglothlin5406]

My greatuncle was in insurance. The companies were caught flat-foot and got together to send a few agents to represent them. He was there for a few weeks and brought back some things that he bought from people who seriously needed some money, and had just given money from his own pocket to others, while he was writing his reports. We don't know anything else about the items because he died of cholera shortly after he returned. The little he did tell the family was terrifying.

[@FallacyBites]

I don't remember if Lloyd's of London came through that earthquake with flying colours, so everybody trusts them---and/or that earthquake was so rough Lloyd's began/started the "figuring out odds of natural disasters" thing. Curse my frail memory

[@megansfo]

OK, as a native old San Franciscan, we consider our pre-1906 history as "colorful." The city was actually founded in 1776 when Mission Dolores was founded by Fra. Junipero Serra. It still exists. Recently it's become fashionable to hate San Francisco in some quarters, but it will still be there when we are all gone. I was lucky to have been born there, live there as a teenager in the 60s, and become a successfulgallery artist there later on. It has problems now, but so do most cities. 🌉🌉🌉

[@thehumanconsensus]

You forgot one big things that fueled the restoration. The first owner of the Bank of Italy, now known as Bank of America, was making loans in an alley over a desk made from rubble. BoA will say he made them with the only guarantee being a handshake (a bit dramatic I'm sure) but he was a big part of the restoration and reinvestment.

[@buinghiathuan4595]

When killing a man was commended and seen as a mercy, u know shjt hit the fan, hard

[@willowhofmann7409]

This is surreal. You're talking about my hometown. Where I'm standing right now. What a time to be alive. The present is the best.

[@trishapellis]

Plate tectonics don't just stop. The city is better prepared now - or it should be, companies will still shirk building restrictions or get as close to legal limits as they can get away with - but there's also way more people. I agree with you that the present is the best, but the danger is not over. While it's unlikely another big earthquake like this will happen again on any given day, the more time passes, the more likely it becomes. Can't hurt to be aware.

[@GrouchierBear]

There was a brief outbreak of bubonic plague after the earthquake that was allegedly linked to rats fleeing the ruins of Chinatown, though I don't know how much of that link was definitive and how much of it was simply blaming the Chinese immigrants for something that was possibly unrelated to them.

[@FallacyBites]

The bubonic plague hit anerica in 1899 via a boat from China. Chinatown is were people first succumbed to the plague, cuz it was both crowded and a disease vector had been introduced. In this case, they weren't wrong about the point of entry aspect. They were right, but for the wrong reasons.

[@hjusn]

An Italian immigrant who was grateful to America for giving him an opportunity to become successful, was responsible for a significant amount of the money used to rebuild San Francisco. His business was called the Bank of Italy which is now called the Bank of America headquartered in San Francisco. Bank of America is currently ranked the second largest bank in the world.

[@IanPendleton-gh6ox]

Do you know his name?

[@hjusn]

@@IanPendleton-gh6ox Amadeo Peter Giannini

[@IanPendleton-gh6ox]

@@hjusn Thanks.

[@chaoticchaos894]

Cool fact that's the proper way immigration is done. He came with a work ethic an as a believer in the dream and making sure he made a positive impact to his community and countrymen. What's happening currently is immigration done horribly wrong smh

[@dougiephresh]

I believe Simon has a video on this guy😂

[@roblavalle7800]

My Great Grandfather helped to rebuild San Francisco after the earthquake. He said it was the worst thing he ever saw and he was in also WW1

[@FallacyBites]

WOW 😮

[@tomshady3530]

As someone who has several houses in bay area: it cannot be understated that 70 percent of the damage was caused by dynamiting.

[@DinosaurProtector]

How on earth do you have a few houses in the Bay Area?!? I live in the South Bay and have been a teacher for 18 years in East San Jose and I can only afford a 400 sq ft converted garage to live in. Housing is an absolute nightmare here. I've lived in The South Bay Area and Oakland all of my life and most of the people I grew up with had to leave the area to be able to afford anything. Edited: I love it here and I love my job and my students, which is why I haven't left. But I look at Zillow and feel a deep sense of despair. I can only dream of being able to buy a house someday.

[@erichloehr5992]

As someone who lived most of thier life in the San Francisco Bay Area and a ravenous devourer of history I was amazed of how little I knew of these details in spite of being surrounded by them my whole life. Thanks Simon and team for sharing this fascinating story

[@kevinjhonson5925]

It sounds like a disaster that happened a long time ago was handled better than hurricane Katrina.

[@pop5678eye]

San Francisco wasn't the only city whose dominance was devastated by a natural disaster. Just a few years before the 1900 hurricane devastated Galveston and left Houston as the predominant port of Texas.

[@anna9072]

An increase in small earthquakes doesn’t necessarily portend a big one on the way - often lots of small earthquakes will take the pressure off the fault and actually decrease the chances of a catastrophic break.

[@sjeason]

Not to mention a fault as active as the San Andreas produces hundreds of small earthquakes all the time, so feeling some wouldn’t be too out of the ordinary

[@theconceptualist8626]

That is fair, but we’ve been having small ones almost weekly now. It only started happening about a month and a half ago. Not that we haven’t had small quakes before this but I haven’t seen frequency like this in a while. We had two back to back within a few minutes of each other. The San Andreas hasn’t ruptured in Southern California for 300 years. The fact of the matter is that we don’t know for sure. And I can’t help but be at least minorly concerned.

[@anna9072]

@@theconceptualist8626 It’s always valid to be concerned when you live on the San Andreas. I lived in central California for a long time, I was in Berkeley during the Loma Prieta quake. But we really don’t know enough to make any kind of prediction, other than “sooner or later, there’s going to be a quake”. What magnitude, where, and exactly when, are still no more than guesses.

[@thatmar1neguy]

Be hard-pressed to get this kind of fast response, organization, and relief nowadays because every bureaucrat wants to be the one responsible for something good happening so they can justify the existence of their fake ass job

[@johnharris6655]

A lot of Debris was dumped into the bay to create the Marina District, which then suffered liquefaction in the 1989 quake causing several building to collapse.

[@FallacyBites]

Yup! And in 1906, Chinatown was flattened by the earthquake BEFORE the fires happened, because They were on landfill from when they were building the city. Don't buy houses on landfill in California folks! No matter how much the real estate agent tells you it'll be fine. IT WON'T

[@schnetzelschwester]

The next catastrophe is already on the horizon: the Campi Flegrei near Naples. The earth has been shaking there for weeks, with the last earthquake occurring on 8 June. People fled their houses and live in tents. The ground in the bay has heaved so that ferries and larger ships can no longer enter the harbour of Pozzuoli. The ground feels hot and sulphur vapours are rising. The authorities play down the danger so as not to cause panic and not to frighten tourists. They know it is impossible to evacuate the approximately 3 million people in the region quickly. It is also impossible to tell exactly if or when the vulcano blows up, and it is unknown if the Vesuvio is connected to the Campi Flegrei. At Pompeji people returned after an earthquake and were still rebuilding their houses when Vesuvio erupted and buried them for centuries. If I lived there, I would go on holiday for some months or just move away.

[@timdewey3798]

I live in Napa California and my mother use to tell us that my grandparents could see the glow of the fire's in san Francisco

[@davidnelson257]

Talking about TNT fire breaks reminds me of a classic SF story “Vintage Season “.

[@TheSticlizard]

My grandmother was estimated to have been just 6 months old survived the San Francisco earthquake/fire. Her family unknown, age unknown. She was adopted grew up in a nice family in San Francisco, California. Married and in the 1920s moved to Merced, California. In the 1980s a reporter did an article on survivors in the area. Come to find out that a total of I think 19 San Francisco earthquake survivors living on the same street in Merced. Kind of like WOW!

[@smedley5215]

Never thought I’d hear Simon say my town name, Vallejo lol

[@OdyTypeR]

I'm not a local, so I've always said vuh-LAY-yo; the way E-40 taught me. At least Simon didn't say Vai-yay-ho 😁

[@4362mont]

@@OdyTypeR General Vallejo didn't say his name Vah-yay-ho, so why should we?

[@zeroreyortsed3624]

As far as rebuilding the city so quickly, it really just goes to show how much we can accomplish as a species, when we're put in a position where our individual biases don't matter anymore.

[@ultraviolet7838]

Looking at the comment section of this video alone, you can tell this would not be possible today. About 30% of the country would just blame liberals.

[@pirateheart100]

I was born and raised in California. San Francisco is a beautiful city. When I was a teenager and babysitting one of my clients had a thick book of first hand accounts of the earthquake. Once their little girl was asleep I would read that book. Even though it was many years ago, one of the things that still stand out today are the accounts of people that lived up in the hills. They had a beautiful view of the bay and hearing the rumble went outside and saw the earthquake coming towards him as a ripple, that like when you throw a stone in water. I've been in several earthquakes but I've never seen that affect. I can just imagine what that looked like. My grandmother was born April 15, 1906. Also my uncle, aunt and three cousins survived the 1989 quake. My uncle got off work early to watch the baseball game. Good thing, he would have been on the collapsed freeway. They lived in Oakland not far from it.

[@FallacyBites]

Daaaaaaamn Also, do you happen to remember the name of the book?

[@pirateheart100]

Unfortunately I don't remember the name of the book. I wish I did because I would love to have it. It has been way too many years.

[@Kenzie.Avrahm.Fraser.Gelbart]

I lived most of my life in Orinda California, 15 minutes from sanfrancisco. In the middle of family therapy one day, the groaning sound hit us like a jet approaching and dropped us for a split second. It was like the ground below us suddenly dropped into free fall, then stopped when it hit whatever was below it. Probably just a few feet, but hard enough to put the fear of our lives in us. We're all just sitting there in these couches in our circle, wide-eyed, kinda just like hipnotized. It was so sudden and such an intense god-fearing moment that we just lay there, reclining our center of gravity as low as possible, not sure whether to attempt to stand up to run outside. The most intense part was over in about 10 seconds, but it felt like the whole room was accelerating in random directions at random speeds, and that the drop was just watching stood out. It was so surreal that we just kinda composed ourselves and the room and finished the therapy visit like nothing happened and everything was totally chill 😂

[@flygirlfly]

I had a great-great uncle who 'disappeared' in the disaster. He was reportedly a shady, albeit rich guy. Some evidence has him surfacing in Seattle, under a different name. Deep genealogical research proved that true. It was still a family secret that my grandfather finally admitted it was true. He started a new life away from the criminal associates that might be interested in him. Apparently, he ran off with quite alot of gold coinage. I wonder how many other people took advantage to slip away and start over, elsewhere?

[@AndyBonesSynthPro]

Here's a fun fact: my college dorm at Academy of Art in San Francisco was c converted old mansion on Van Ness & Broadway. It was one of the few buildings that survived the 1906 earthquake & fire. Incredibly cool structure with a lot of ornate carved wood inside & a spiral staircase to the roof inside my flat

[@jdestefa1]

As in 1906, during the 1989 earthquake, the water mains were broken so firemen could not extinguish the fires in the Marina district. As the World Series was about to begin, the bars were packed with young men planning to watch the game. The firemen went into the bars to get the men to assist them in running hoses to San Francisco Bay so water could flow to the engines so the fires could be put out.

[@Bassingal]

He said it was the largest Navy evacuation by sea at the time. That was 20,200 people, rescued by our Navy. It was so long ago that the ships had sails! I just have to say that the evacuations by sea after 9-11 was a remarkable feat by all involved. It's estimated that 500,000 people were rescued by boats out of the disaster zone.

[@DeaconBlu]

Cool vid mate! Thanks! 😎👍

[@avph]

The fire didn’t reach the Southern older part of San Francisco - the Mission district was spared.

[@thistledownsname]

I work at a brick company that got its start in the rebuilding of the SF earthquake.

[@saraprior1475]

I, my Dad, and Grandfather owe our existence to that quake. My great Grandfather moved there but had to move back to Arkansas after the quake.

[@raezehel]

Sir! I need to know how many channels you're on so I can subscribe to them all. Hearing your voice brightens my day, no matter how dark the subject matter. I've found you on five so far. Where all can I find you??

[@williammurray1341]

Unlike after Katrina when it took days to get the legal clearance for even local federal military forces to be released. The first assistance came from Walmart and the Southern Baptists.

[@Lambzalot]

13:27 that is a sentence. After just watching the video on the fire bombing of Tokyo (one of my personal favorite unreported stories) I realize that this is something that had to have happened at both locations. You are trying your best to save someone you are the type of person to care the most about saving a random stranger only to leave them to burn never to be seen again and never to be viewed by their family.... That is wild.

[@Vagitarian01]

You might also be interested in the 1985 MOVE bombing, in Philidelphia.

[@tkskagen]

On record for those of us (of a certain age), the worst was the 1994 California quake with highways collapsing...

[@SoundShinobiYuki]

And for those of us of the right age at the time, Animaniacs also did a great song about it (“A quake! A quake! The house begins to shake! You’re bouncing ‘cross the floor and watching all your dishes break!”)

[@joelellis7035]

You mean 1989? Cypress structure collapse?

[@andrewbrown6522]

Laughs in indonesian tsunami

[@maliceamarantine3921]

They mean the Northridge quake. The other big SF quake was the Loma Prieta in 89.

[@templarw20]

And this, friends, is why building codes exist, and why they're so strict in California. Regulations written in blood, and all...

[@jakesmith8000]

We have betrayed NordVPN...

[@nathanhayes2]

😂 sovtrue

[@bloodyblue354]

Tbh, shilling for vpn's as glowing as these ones is pretty shameful anyway, no matter which one it is.

[@yanikq]

Oh gosh man Simon I still have 2 more years of the Nord VPN deal that I got due to one of your channels 🤬

[@kushalraj]

They are owned by the same parent company. So technically you are giving your information to the same company and getting similar quality of service.

[@markedis5902]

CyberGhost for me. Less spam

[@patriciaposthumus6684]

Up until the Earth Quake in 1906, the mission district in San Francisco didn't exist. Because they pushed all the rubble into the bay, they ended up creating more land, and they turned around and built on it. So flash forward by 83 some years when the Loma Preata Quake hit, that is the whole reason it hit the mission district the hardest. It was like shaking a bowl of jello. Just thought I'd give a little FYI for those who don't live in California and didn't know this. So there were 83 yrs between these 2 really big quakes. If this holds for another 83 years, then we are due again in 2072.

[@gixxersboy]

I think you're confusing the Mission district with the Marina district.The Mission district was essentialy founded in 1776 when the Mission Dolores adobe chapel, was constructed . It is the oldest structure in San Francisco. The Marina district was built of land reclaimed with rubble from the 1906 quake, which is why it faired so poorly in the Loma Prieta quake

[@thomasschroeder7313]

Your team overlooked the impact that local spontaneous mutual aid groups had on feeding and sheltering the refugees; underplayed the bureaucratic delays and headaches involved with the implementation of feeding and sheltering the people affected; didn’t mention that the government panicked while the regular citizens did what they could. Read “A Paradise Built in Hell” for a better understanding of how the people do a better job at handling adversity than the large institutions who are supposed to help but make things worse.

[@Randomguy-wy4xi]

The San Francisco quake had a bigger and fouler brother which caused even worse firestorms. It was the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake. Magnitude 7.9-8.2.

[@FallacyBites]

Thank you for telling us ❤ (...goes straight to wikipedia)

[@Kokuraman]

Farout Simon! Never knew all this detail!

[@jeremymcdonald7974]

And they've been talking about the Big One again since the 1989 Earthquake. Especially after the LA earthquake in the 90's.

[@archstanton6102]

I was tnere a few weeks ago and was shocked to see they never rebuilt Oakland.

[@FallacyBites]

Just in case you haven read it---Simon Winchester's "A Crack in the Edge of the World" is Magnificent. I recommend getting the hardcover copy cuz it has lots of maps.

[@pinverarity]

Absolutely right. An extraordinarily good book, and the hardcover is indeed worth the search.

[@melberry5379]

I actually live in General Funston's hometown. A number of years ago, his childhood home and his memorial statue were relocated to our town square in Iola, Kansas.

[@CaesarSaladin7]

Episode suggestion: The Hartford Circus fire of 1944, otherwise known as “The Day the Clowns Cried”

[@susanmolnar9606]

I agree being from CT this is a story we all grew up with.

[@katieskarlette]

This video made me a happy natural disaster geek!

[@robertaguirre3874]

I was around for the one in 1989 that rocked SF. It was only 15 seconds, and I thought the world was ending as I rode that. I cannot imagine one last almost a minute

[@NightingaleSunset]

Fun Fact: With the destruction of so many banks in the city, a small outfit catering to the cities Italian community- the "Bank of Italy" was one of the few lenders in the rubble after the fire and quake. This boon eventually lent itself to become what we know today as Bank of America.

[@soonmeekim930]

Poor San Francisco. This happening 2 years after the bubonic plague arrived there is insane

[@Rydonattelo]

I was on the ride EARTHQUAKE at Universal Studios Florida as a kid in the 90s and got picked to pull the rope that caused all this

[@ravertaking6343]

I've listened to other stories about this but Ilze wrote the best one yet.

[@patrickgallagher9069]

In 2022, the median household income for Asian Americans was $108,700, which is higher than the national median of $74,580. The concerns with Asian American wages that "never change," has apparently changed!

[@brs690]

There's a couple of unbelievable things here, San Francisco stopped burning and the navy gave something to the army?

[@clairepettie]

26:55 You can't fool me, "Governor George C. Pardee" - I know a Martin Mull when I see one - and that is definitely a Martin Mull.

[@pooryorick831]

I was in San Francisco in 1989 when the Loma Prieta earthquake struck. I guarantee everyone who felt that quake was convinced that it was the next Big One. We all thought we were facing destruction. The 1906 quake was ten times more powerful. The 06 quake was epicentered in the town of Olema in Marin county. You can go there and see the fence that had suddenly moved about 20 feet. It is a sobering thing to ponder. It will happen again. And that is one reason why I now live on the other side of the USA.

[@Trevorious2010]

Please do an episode on the 2004 tsunami that killed or displaced an estimated 250,000 people

[@NRUTOKINGDOM4143]

As someone who lives in California and we've had several small quakes recently in SoCal this makes me a little anxious... Realistically we're overdue for a big one so are the small tremors to releave pressure or is it the big one warming up.

[@ultraviolet7838]

I’d say neither. Small quakes are common and not a cause for concern, but we’re still overdue and that doesn’t change anything.

[@Narwhalrus12]

Simon is PUMPING out the videos today

[@garyclark3843]

And he isn't even on the bus.

[@giantfactory]

When I first saw the title in the thumbnail, I immediately thought this was about the current state and destruction of San Francisco.

[@jaredeiesland]

Now that we have discovered the Cascadia Subduction zone, Oregonians understand we are just waiting our turn, and Californians know the San Andreas fault will trigger with it. Hold onto your butts, the next one is going to be apocalyptic.

[@monaleigh1862]

About that Kamala commercial: People can't hear you because their empty stomachs are growling so loudly.

[@ranty_fugue]

I lived in the Mission right by a firebreak, on Guerrero Street a few doors north of 20th. I don’t know whether the breaks worked elsewhere, but they seem to have worked there: on the south side of 20th, there are tons of pre-earthquake houses; north, zero. I was told by an old-timer that literally every house on the block I lived was dynamited, along with all the blocks west and east (not sure how far). Another curiosity is that there are old cisterns all over town. They lie under select intersections, and are identifiable by a big circle of brickwork inscribing the square of the intersection. They were built as a backup water reserve in case the water mains broke in any future earthquake. It was interesting to see that there was one at Guerrero and 19th Street, less than a block from my old apartment.

[@murrayscott9546]

A disasterous fire in mid- West ( Hinlkley ? ) was largely overlooked because media focussed on Frisco.

[@antidotebrain69]

17 min after posting. Illegally early today. Teach me something interesting brain boi.

[@willowhofmann7409]

Also CCtee idea: front: THE PAST WAS THE WORST back: ALLEGEDLY

[@thamertanner5448]

Love this lol

[@jamiehughes5573]

Its amazing how well the san Fransisco mint survived

[@smac1706]

And it's only a matter of time before an even bigger one hits. And there are a whole heck of alot more people living there now...😢

[@ultraviolet7838]

In 2024, the San Andreas Fault, especially Southern California, is overdue for a major (~8.0) earthquake.

[@LittleManFlying]

Pretty sure the Goat Island that was shown in the video was actually the Goat Island in Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island... Which was also a torpedo station... and is still called Goat Island

[@pinverarity]

“Beneath the bustling streets of San Francisco, the San Andreas Fault slowly grinds away.” Not exactly; only a small corner of the city is on the fault, which angles away from the city to the NW. Most of the San Andreas Fault in the Bay Area is off the coast.

[@RubberDucky6-]

So weird hearing my hometown of Vallejo mentioned in a video