Photograph

Market Street after the fire

San Francisco · 1906

Original archival photograph

The surviving historical source image.

What the picture shows

A ruined masonry street, tracks in the roadway, a tower at the end of the view. Smoke is still in the air.

Documented context

The closest after-picture located to the film’s direction. It is not a surveyed match of the film camera.

Photographer: The print is inscribed “Copyright 1906 by W.E. Worden.”
Source: Wikimedia Commons file of a 1906 print. The file describes it as Market Street looking toward the Ferry Building. Silver gelatin, in that record.
License: Public domain.