San Francisco on Film: Days Before the 1906 Quake

San Francisco on Film: Days Before the 1906 Quake

www.cbsnews.com

Take a trip back in time. This 11-minute reel of film, shot from a cable car on Market Street, captures a city full of life and promise, which was destroyed only days later in the great earthquake of 1906.

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One of the greatest videos of all time.

This 11 minute film on a cable car going down Market Street in San Francisco in 1906 is probably some of the greatest footage of video ever shot in the early days of film making.

There is nothing fancy about how the footage of the film was made, it was simply mounted on the front of a cable car going down Market Street; but what you see happening in the video is incredible.

San Francisco was really hopping in 1906, at least until the Great Earthquake of 1906 struck on April 18th only days after this video was taken. This video is fantastic.

You see old cars, wagons, horses, old buildings, how people dressed, there are no stop signs or traffic lights, there are only a multitude of courteous people making progress unhindered by traffic lights and stop signs. There aren't any ugly traffic signs, there is only hussle and bussle of the public.

And... then there was the horrible earthquake that ended what was filmed only days before.

www.cbsnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Yes, I saw this on the show "60 minutes". Although the entire footage was not shown, I was amazed at the timing of the production with the earthquake and fire happening just a few days later. In the segment, the reporters were saying that the cars in it were used to show a more vibrant city. If you get a chance to check it out, look at the license plates on the "chauffeur" cars and you'll see they are the same ones throughout. Fantastic find none the less. Amazing that people are all over the place.

Cheers!

It is interesting how someone will do something like that just before an incident as catastrophic at it was.
Like the China quake a few years ago when people were seeing the strange light anomalies in the sky just before the quake hit.
Gotta wonder if the senses of people are heightened before events like those.
this may not be the reason for your post but I thought I'd bring the idea to light

Amazing find, not only did I just watch the 12 minute film, I sent the link to everyone I know. Having lived in the Bay Area and experiencing the 89 quake and seeing what Market Street looked like in those days blows the mind. It looks nothing like that today and no signs of what happened back then.

S&F for opening poster.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/fabd88ce92f3.jpg[/atsimg]

Amazing film - so interesting to see how live goes on and no one knows what will happen soon. I suppose that is the way it should be. No traffic lanes - horse and buggies, autos and cable cars, people on foot - all just slowly going down the street looking out for one another going about their daily routine. Brought tears to my eyes!

Further proof that I was born a century too late. I would give everything up to live in that America.

Wish I could live in that era, such simple times! where the majority of people had empathy, compassion and manners.

2nd Line

Originally posted by JJBB22
Wish I could live in that era, such simple times! where the majority of people had empathy, compassion and manners.

2nd Line

I would have also loved to llive in that era, we have lost so much over the past 100 years.

I sent this wonderful video to everyone I could think fo today, instead of emails my phone rang all day, my friends and family wanted to talk about it, that sure says something doesn't it.

reply to post by gardCanada


It really is amazing how there are people all over the place in the video, and how courteous people really were back then. Nowadays people are different. Those days were far more relaxed apparently.

Not such the gay friendly looking place back then.

Interesting how things change. Good or bad..they change.

Nice vid.

reply to post by Lil Drummerboy


It really is amazing how people do things right before something happens. This is just one of those things that someone really got lucky with. I would have never dreamed that San Francisco was like this in 1906. I can see why so many people moved there back then.

It is amazing that more people in China didn't get videos of the colors in the sky with their video cameras before the earthquake struck in China, since there are so many people living in China.

People do get lucky sometimes before something tragic happens, and this was one of those times when someone was able to capture the moment before a catastrophe struck.

reply to post by Aquarius1


It is amazing how things change and you would never know such a catastrophe happened unless someone had such a video. It must have been terribly devastating for the people in San Francisco back in 1906, maybe that is why they covered up how many people actually died in the San Francisco earthquake for almost 100 years before the rest of the world really realized how many people must have really died from that earthquake and started checking the cemetary records to find proof of the deaths that went unrecorded or untold.

Its good to hear that you sent the video to your friends in the Bay Area. I'm pretty sure you will get back many replies telling you "Thank You" for making sure that they got a chance to see such a fantastic video of the good old days.

The October 17th, 1989 Loma Prieta M6.9 earthquake must have been pretty scary for you and your friends back then, it really shook up San Francisco and the Worlds Series ball game that was being televised at that time.

reply to post by crazydaisy


It truly was amazing how much traffic was moving and there were no incidents taking place. The people were acting like a well oiled machine working in perfect harmony. I wish it could be like that today.

reply to post by janon


Yes, I would give up everything also to live in an era and area like that also. It seems like everyone was very content in the video, and I can see why just by watching the video. I did notice that I didn't see very many women or girls in the video, mostly men and boys, and that seemed a little strange.

reply to post by JJBB22


Yes, they did have empathy, compassion and manners. Strange how we live in a time when there seems to be very little of that nowadays. I wish I could be back in those times myself. If someone builds a time machine before I kick off, you'll know where I'll be.

reply to post by darkventures


It looks like everything has changed for the bad. It would have been fun to have lived back there in that time period with those people.

Originally posted by RussianScientists
reply to post by Aquarius1

 

Its good to hear that you sent the video to your friends in the Bay Area. I'm pretty sure you will get back many replies telling you "Thank You" for making sure that they got a chance to see such a fantastic video of the good old days.

The October 17th, 1989 Loma Prieta M6.9 earthquake must have been pretty scary for you and your friends back then, it really shook up San Francisco and the Worlds Series ball game that was being televised at that time.

Thank you for your reply, I have heard from many of my friends in the Bay Area today and they were all grateful and teary eyed as I was.

Yes the 89 Loma Prieta Quake was something, I was lucky I had no damage.. My boss was at the game, he lives in Orinda and didn't get home until 4:00 AM in the morning. The major problem was that none of the stop lights were working..I was without power for about 24 hours and spent all night hitting redial on my phone trying to reach my daughter here in Michigan and finally got through to her at 5:00 AM, she was hysterical thinking the worst.

reply to post by Aquarius1


Thanks for your wonderful news that you have shared with us about your friends and family calling you in reply to sending them an email of the video being on the Internet. I'm glad you are safe and didn't get hurt during that earthquake.

I remember that AT&T stock shot through the roof back then because of everybody calling everybody finding out if they were okay, and if they weren't, what could they do to help them in their time of need. That was the only way that the rest of us out in the world knew that there were a lot of people that cared about their relatives, and that was a great feeling to know that so many people in our nation really cared for one another.

That has got to be the coolest thing I have ever seen! I have watched it several times already. It sorta' has a hypnotic effect on me! Thank you so much for posting this.