Editing San Francisco (section)

=== 1906 earthquake and interwar era ===
[[File:Post-and-Grant-Avenue-Look.jpg|thumb|right|The [[1906 San Francisco earthquake]] was the [[List of disasters in the United States by death toll|deadliest earthquake in U.S. history]].]]
At 5:12&nbsp;am on April 18, 1906, a major [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|earthquake struck San Francisco]] and northern California. As buildings collapsed from the shaking, ruptured [[pipeline transport|gas lines]] ignited fires that spread across the city and burned out of control for several days. With [[water main]]s out of service, the [[Presidio of San Francisco|Presidio]] Artillery Corps attempted to contain the [[conflagration|inferno]] by dynamiting blocks of buildings to create firebreaks.<ref name="Funston">{{cite web|title = 1906 Earthquake: Fire Fighting|work=Golden Gate National Recreation Area|publisher=US Department of the Interior |date = December 24, 2003|url = http://www.nps.gov/prsf/historyculture/1906-earthquake-fire-fighting.htm|access-date =June 13, 2008}}</ref> More than three-quarters of the city lay in ruins, including almost all of the downtown core.<ref name="Montagne">{{cite news|last = Montagne |first = Renée|title = Remembering the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake|work=People & Places |publisher=NPR|date = April 11, 2006|url = https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5334411|access-date =June 13, 2008}}</ref> Contemporary accounts reported that 498 people died, though modern estimates put the number in the several thousands.<ref>{{cite web|title = Casualties and Damage after the 1906 earthquake|work=Earthquake Hazards Program – Northern California|url = https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/events/1906calif/18april/casualties.php|publisher=US Geological Survey|date = January 25, 2008|access-date =June 13, 2008}}</ref> More than half of the city's population of 400,000 was left homeless.<ref>{{cite web|title = 1906 Earthquake and the Army|work=Golden Gate National Recreation Area|url = http://www.nps.gov/prsf/historyculture/1906-earthquake.htm|publisher=US Department of the Interior |date =August 25, 2004|access-date =June 13, 2008}}</ref> [[Refugee]]s settled temporarily in makeshift tent villages in Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, on the beaches, and elsewhere. Many fled permanently to the [[East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area)|East Bay]]. [[Jack London]] is remembered for having famously eulogized the earthquake: "Not in history has a modern imperial city been so completely destroyed. San Francisco is gone."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist5/jlondon.html |title=Jack London Writes of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire |publisher=Sfmuseum.org |date=May 5, 1906 |access-date=June 15, 2013}}</ref>

Rebuilding was rapid and performed on a grand scale. Rejecting calls to completely remake the street grid, San Franciscans opted for speed.{{sfn|Wiley|2000|p=56–62}} [[Amadeo Giannini]]'s [[Bank of Italy (United States)|Bank of Italy]], later to become [[Bank of America]], provided loans for many of those whose livelihoods had been devastated. The influential [[San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association]] or SPUR was founded in 1910 to address the quality of housing after the earthquake.<ref>{{cite web|title=SPUR Our Mission and History|url=http://www.spur.org/about/our_mission_and_history|access-date=March 26, 2013}}</ref> The earthquake hastened development of western neighborhoods that survived the fire, including [[Pacific Heights, San Francisco|Pacific Heights]], where many of the city's wealthy rebuilt their homes.<ref>{{cite book|last = O'Brien |first = Tricia
|title = San Francisco's Pacific Heights and Presidio Heights|publisher = Arcadia Publishing |year = 2008 |location = San Francisco |isbn = 978-0-7385-5980-3|page = 7|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=J8dEQubtnqYC&pg=PA7}}</ref> In turn, the destroyed mansions of Nob Hill became grand hotels. [[San Francisco City Hall|City Hall]] rose again in the [[Beaux-Arts architecture|Beaux Arts]] style, and the city celebrated its rebirth at the [[Panama–Pacific International Exposition]] in 1915.{{sfn|Wiley|2000|p=9}}
[[File:Flickr - …trialsanderrors - Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, aeroplane view, 1915.jpg|thumb|left |upright=1.35|The [[Panama–Pacific International Exposition (1915)|Panama–Pacific Exposition]], a major [[world's fair]] held in 1915, was seen as a chance to showcase the city's recovery from the earthquake.]]

During this period, San Francisco built some of its most important infrastructure. Civil Engineer [[Michael O'Shaughnessy]] was hired by San Francisco Mayor [[James Rolph]] as chief engineer for the city in September 1912 to supervise the construction of the Twin Peaks Reservoir, the [[Stockton Street Tunnel]], the [[Twin Peaks Tunnel]], the [[San Francisco Municipal Railway]], the [[San Francisco Fire Department Auxiliary Water Supply System|Auxiliary Water Supply System]], and new sewers. San Francisco's streetcar system was pushed to completion by O'Shaughnessy between 1915 and 1927. It was the [[Hetch Hetchy|O'Shaughnessy Dam]], [[Hetch Hetchy Reservoir]], and [[Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct]] that would have the largest effect on San Francisco.<ref>{{cite web|title=Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco – M.M. O'Shaughnessy Employed as City Engineer|url=http://www.sfmuseum.net/bio/mmo.html|access-date=March 16, 2013}}</ref> An abundant water supply enabled San Francisco to develop into the city it has become today.

[[File:SF-Oakland-Bay-Bridge-Construction.jpg|thumb|The [[San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge|Bay Bridge]] under construction on [[Yerba Buena Island]] in 1935]]

In ensuing years, the city solidified its standing as a financial capital; in the wake of the [[Wall Street Crash of 1929|1929 stock market crash]], not a single San Francisco-based bank failed.<ref>{{cite web|title = San Francisco Gold Rush Banking – 1849|publisher = The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco|date = June 24, 2004|url = http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist9/banking.html|access-date = June 13, 2008|archive-date = May 9, 2008|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080509133016/http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist9/banking.html|url-status = dead}}</ref> Indeed, it was at the height of the [[Great Depression]] that San Francisco undertook two great civil engineering projects, simultaneously constructing the [[San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge]] and the [[Golden Gate Bridge]], completing them in 1936 and 1937, respectively. It was in this period that the island of [[Alcatraz Island|Alcatraz]], a former military stockade, began its service as a federal maximum security prison, housing notorious inmates such as [[Al Capone]], and [[Robert Franklin Stroud]], the Birdman of Alcatraz. San Francisco later celebrated its regained grandeur with a [[World's fair]], the [[Golden Gate International Exposition]] in 1939–40, creating [[Treasure Island, San Francisco|Treasure Island]] in the middle of the bay to house it.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Treasure Island History|url=https://www.treasureislandmuseum.org/island-history|access-date=August 5, 2021|work=timuseum}}</ref>