Sad, But Inevitable

Lotta's Fountain on the 100th anniversary
of the 1906 earthquake

Although a few remain, no survivors of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 were able to attend the commemoration marking its 107th anniversary [bold added]:

There are at least three known 1906 quake survivors, and one of them, 107-year-old Winnie Hook of San Jose, was scheduled to show up Thursday morning. But at the last minute, it was decided she was too fragile to travel to the city, said event organizer Lee Houskeeper.

Fellow survivor 107-year-old Bill Del Monte of Greenbrae rode in a pre-celebration parade Wednesday, but couldn't muster the energy for Thursday.

The prospect that last year's fete - when Hook was present to call the celebration "awesome" - may have been the final one to host a witness to a defining moment in Bay Area history hung in the air.

Because of a bomb threat, this year's ceremony was moved to Union Square. The ability of a few people to disrupt entire cities is a sad fact of modern life. In the face of adversity we would do well to recall the deeds of our ancestors:

Yet, within the span of ten years the people had rebuilt San Francisco to the point where it could host the Panama Pacific Exposition of 1915.

One domed building constructed during that era is testimony to the optimistic spirit of that age and constitutes one of the City’s famous landmarks.

In Palo Alto to the south, the first president of a fledgling university surveyed the wreckage and declined a post at the Smithsonian: "I am sure that my place is here”. [Update: today it just may be the number one university in the United States.]

A young San Mateo banker set up a makeshift office on the wharf and made loans based on a handshake; he later introduced branch banking to California and built one of the largest banks in the world.