December 15, 2006
Simon Winchester, A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906
Posted by Gordon Smith

Eventually, I will read every book Simon Winchester writes. How could you not like The Meaning of Everything or Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded? Today I finished A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906, which was read to me by Winchester himself on my way to and from work.

Each book is filled with a series of stories that sometimes connect only slightly to the main focus of study. Not tangents, exactly, but deep, deep background. Which is one reason these books make for such great commuting. I learn something with each drive.

Near the end of this book, Winchester mentions Daniel Burnham, who is a central character in Devil in the White City. Burnham, the famous Chicago architect who supervised the creation of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 (aka the World's Columbian Exposition) and created the plan for the Mall in Washington, D.C., was asked by some San Francisco boosters to create a new vision for their city. According to Winchester, Burnham's plan arrived in San Francisco on April 17 -- the day before the great quake and fire. Though this may have seemed providential in hindsight, Burnham's plan was never implemented:

San Francisco's most tantalizing "what-if" after the 1906 earthquake came when civic leaders turned their backs on one of the most ambitious plans ever crafted for an American city.

It conjured alluring images of a gracious metropolis radiating from a vast Civic Center. Reservoirs cascaded west from Twin Peaks through sculpted greenery covering nearly five times as much land as Golden Gate Park. Market Street concluded in a formal Grecian retreat, and Telegraph Hill was topped by a spacious park.

But the plan also had an elevated bayside road that foreshadowed the loathed and now-gone Embarcadero Freeway. Forests were cleared for the sake of manicured views, and San Francisco's poorhouse was banished to a site near the county jail.

More on that story here, and here is the graphic from the San Francisco Chronicle (click for a larger image):

Burnham

San Francisco sits in a beautiful, if precarious, location, but architects and city planners have done little to enhance the beauty of the place. Apparently, many people felt that Burnham's plan was the wrong solution, but I understand why many people feel that 1906 was an opportunity missed.

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