Market Street, 1906

This ten minute film by the Miles Brothers of a trip along Market Street 105 years ago is a fascinating glimpse of the traffic, people and fashion of another era.  But what adds a whole other dimension to this footage of people going about their everyday lives is that it was shot just days before the devastating earthquake and fire on April 18, 1906.  The Ferry Building at the end of the street stayed intact, but many other buildings were destroyed. At least 3,000 lives were lost and nearly three quarters of the city's population were left homeless.  The film was shipped on a train to New York just the night before or else it would have been incinerated in the Miles Brother's Market Street office.