An EERI Reconnaissance Report: Damage to San Francisco in the 1906 Earthquake—A Centennial Perspective

Abstract

This paper presents an EERI reconnaissance report for building damage in the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco before the fire began. It is therefore synthetic and “virtual.” Using the evidence that has survived in the form of engineering reports and photographs, the paper presents a modern interpretation of the past in the format of a contemporary report. The paper is a synthesis of past observations and judgments leavened with the hindsight of a hundred years. For the first time in decades earthquake damage is surveyed and discussed through the lens of a professional report rather than being seen as a spectacular disaster. The report presented here is a condensed version of a chapter in a larger textural and photographic study entitled Bracing for Disaster; Earthquake-Resistant Architecture and Engineering in San Francisco, 1838-1933 (Berkeley: The Bancroft Library and Heyday Books, March 2006).