The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-04-19
LOWLANDS OF
SAN FRANCISCO

FAe country affected by the disaster
that has visited San Francisco must
comprise, III greater or less degree, all
This would be true If there had only
been a iandsIip and no earthquake
shock at all. All that region depends,
physically and materially. upon San
Francisco. 1t is, in the largest meas
ure, suburban to the great city.
Tt is an old story that in 1849 the
water came up to Montgomery street.
AS explanatory of the disaster that
stated briefly that the water has come
back to it's own
Very briefly, all that portion of San
Francisco lying east of Montgomery
street on the north side of Market. and
east of a line running from Spear and
Stuart to First and Market on the
south side. was formerly under water.
The tide ebbed and flowed there, and
when the gold rush came great ships
rode at anchor where before yesterday
there stood massive business blocks of
stone and brick and iron.
The Old water line, commencing at
about where Stuart street meets the
bay at the Merchants Drydock, ran in
a northeriy and westerly direction to a
point little below the junction of
First and Market streets, thence across
Market to Sansome and through the
intermediate blocks in a pretty straight
line, gradually inclining toward Mont
gOmery street, to what is at present
the meeting point of Montgomery street
and Montgomery avenue. AT this
point, DETECTED sharply to the east
ward by the rocky spurs of Telegraph
Hill, the water washing the base of
that peak, the line ran down as far as
Battery street, and continued in
northerly and westerly direction to the
Junction of kearney and Bay streets.
Beyond this point more modern fill,
protected by the Seawall, runs out to
the old Selby Smelling Works, and
beyond that is another made or begun
by the late James Fair, which en-
braces the lands at the sea front of
Van Ness avenue, and out toward the
Preside.
This line. it will be understood is
approximate-but it is pretty nearly
correct. Going back now to the foot
of Spear street On the south side of
Market. there is fill extending toward
South San Francisco and taking in
Mission Flats and the Southern Pacific
Railway yards, or a large portion of
them. The Union Iron Works, on low i
lying lands, is still not on the fill. In |
this part of the filled land below Mar |
ket street is the manufacturing dis |
frict of San Francisco, and the rail- |
way yards. the Santa Fe freight offices !
being at Spear and Harrison streets, |
and the Southern Pacific freight of
hees at Fourth and Townsend streets, |
while it's passenger depot for the main ,
line to Southern California and New !
Orleans is at Third and Townsend.
The Central main line starts from the
ferry on the Oakland side, as the
Santa Fe starts from Emeryyille ana
San Pablo.
In that part of the submerged dis
trict which lies north of Market street
is the entire wholesale district, the
business heart of the great CONNER
ciai city of the Pacific Coast. Every
big business house in the city has it's
store and every man doing big bust
ness in the city has his office there,
almost, be the agent or broker or what !
not All the banks are in that dis
trict, every insurance office of any
note. and many of the largest hotels
are there.
Ii this district is in ruins. the COM
mercial metropolis of the Pacific Coast
is in ruins. And if fire has added it's
horrors to the horror of the earthquake,
the loss is almost irreparable. The loss
of life has been heavy, without any
doubt, and the money loss will foot up
into the hundreds of millions. The real
estate itself even is gone, and no in
surance can be collected.
The Palace and Grand Hotels, which
are reported to have been burned, stood
west of the old water line along First
street on the south side of Market
street, ane in a mere tidal wave would |
have escaped destruction but that they /
were thrown from their foundations by
the cleavage caused by the earthquake {
being above them. They We're prob
ably shaken by the first shock, and {
when the ground began to slide, the {
bursting gas pipes in the hotels or +,
the Goals from the CRATE fires. COM
mon at this time of the year in San !
Francisco, were thrown out and COM I
to the woodwork in the g
looms AS the earthquake shocks had {
burst the city water pipes. of course 5
here was probably no way to control | T
the flames.
This same condition would obtain in c
he Hobart building, on Market street ! j
below Montgomery, where the cable of | !
ice is, and when the Hobart building +
went, the Union Trust Company's s
building, where the Southern Pacific E
offices were formerly, probably went at $
the same time. 1t is not stated that q
The Examiner and Chronicle buildings
are gone, but both those are between ! T