A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester

Author:Simon Winchester
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Adult
Published: 2005-06-20T16:00:00+00:00

19. Eadweard Muybridge – born in London as Edward Muggeridge – lugged thirteen cameras to the turreted roof of Mark Hopkins’s uncompleted mansion on the 900-foot summit of Nob Hill, and twice, in 1877 and 1878, photographed the entire city. This is the second of his panoramas: almost every building in sight would be destroyed by earthquake and fire thirty years later.

years that the city was a tinderbox waiting to be struck. He wanted a saltwater fire-fighting system – after all, the seven square miles of the city had been built on a narrow peninsula that was surrounded on three sides by water. And he wanted the freshwater cisterns, which a long time before had been built beneath the city streets but had been forgotten and neglected and allowed to deteriorate, to be cleaned, renovated and refilled with water. But he was ignored.

He must have felt vindicated when, in October 1905, the National Board of Fire Underwriters declared that San Francisco’s water-supply system, despite being able to deliver 36 million gallons a day, was structurally in such poor shape that the hydrants would not be able to halt anything approaching a major fire. Chief Sullivan informed the city of the board’s analysis, but was studiously and comprehensively ignored once again. Seven months later the

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