Back to San Francisco (1906)

On April 18, 1906, a major earthquake rumbled through San Francisco, shattering the city’s infrastructure. According to Wikipedia, over 80% of the area was destroyed in the earthquake and the resulting fires. Consequently, few remnants of pre-disaster San Francisco remain, which is a tragedy for anyone with a nascent interest in local history.

But such wholesale destruction works to highlight the value of certain rare historical gems. This footage, for example, from the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, unearths a bustling San Francisco mere days before the quake.

The film, shot from the back of a streetcar, documents the people and activities of Market Street on that particular day. There is no commentary. Pedestrians gawk at what must have been the odd sight of all that newfangled film equipment. They cross the lane willy-nilly, without our dependence on crosswalks. Bicyclists cruise aside horseback riders, and carriages coexists aside motorcars. It seems as though the filmmakers induced a motorist to circle the streetcar, perhaps making the road appear busier than it was (at one point, around the 3:30 mark, he nearly rams into a pedestrian. There’s no sound, but I’m sure the man was cursing Henry Ford under his breath). Rowdy paperboys taunt the camera, and a young child peaks out at it from inside a cart. An older boy waves as he hangs one-handedly from the back of his own cart.

It is a fascinating piece of work. One could spend a lifetime dissecting the features of the past that are resurrected here. Personally, I’m mesmerized.