"The City Hall, which, while old, was quite a magnificent building,
occupying a large square block of land, was completely wrecked by the
earthquake, and to look upon reminded one of the pictures of ancient
ruins of Rome or Athens. The Palace Hotel stood for a long time after
everything near it had gone, but finally went up in smoke as the rest.
You could not look in any direction in the city but what mass after mass
of flame stared you in the face. To get about one had to dodge from one
street to another, back and forth in zigzag fashion, and half an hour
after going through a street, it would be impassable. One after another
of the magnificent business blocks went down. The newer buildings seemed
to have withstood the shock better than any others, except well-built
frame buildings. The former lost some of the outside shell, but the
frame stood all right, and in some cases after fire had eaten them all
to pieces, the steel skeleton, although badly twisted and warped, still
stood.
"When I finally left the city, it was all in flames as far as Eighth
Street, which is about a mile and a quarter or half from the water
front. I had to walk at least two miles around in order to get to the
ferry building, and when I got there you could see no buildings standing
in any direction. Nearly all the docks caved in or sheds were knocked
down, and all the streets along the water front were a mass of seams,
upheavals and depressions, car tracks twisted in all shapes.
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