of thickly covered ground of eight square miles had been burned
over and it was apparent that the entire city was doomed to
destruction.

Nearly every famous landmark that had made San Francisco famous over
the world had been laid in ruins or burned to the ground in the dire
catastrophe. Never was the fate of a city more disastrous.

For three miles along the water front buildings had been swept clean
and the blackened beams and great skeletons of factories and offices
stood silhouetted against a background of flame that was slowly
spreading over the entire city.

The whole commercial and office section of the city on the north side
of Market street from the ferry building to Tenth street had been
consumed in the hell of flame, while hardly a building was standing in
the district south of Market street. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon,
despite the heroic work of the firemen and the troops of dynamiters,
who razed building after building and blew up property valued at
millions, the flames spread across Market street to the north side and
swept up Montgomery street, practically to Washington street. Along
Montgomery street were some of the richest banks and commercial houses
in San Francisco.

[Illustration: Copyright by R. L. Forrest 1906.

=STREET TORN UP BY EARTHQUAKE.=

A photograph of street in front of new Postoffice. Note how the car
tracks are thrown up and twisted.]

[Illustration: =STOCKTON STREET FROM UNION SQUARE.=]

[Illustration: =GRANT AVENUE FROM MARKET STREET.=]

[Illustration: =MISSION STREET, SAN FRANCISCO.=

Photographed from Fourth Street.]

[Illustration: =O'FARRELL STREET.=

A new steel building which was being erected shown at the right.]

[Illustration: =LOOKING NORTH FROM SIXTH AND MARKET STREETS.=]

[Illustration: =THE ORPHEUM THEATER ON O'FARRELL STREET.=]

The famous Mills building and the new Merchants Exchange were still
standing, but the Mutual Life Insurance building and scores of bank
and office buildings were on fire, while blocks of other houses were
in the path of the flames and nothing seemed to be at hand to stay
their progress.

Nearly every big factory building had been wiped out of existence and
a complete enumeration of them would look like a copy of the city
directory.

Many of the finest buildings in the city had been leveled to dust by
the terrific charges of dynamite in hopeless effort to stay the horror
of fire. In this work many