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Eleanor Watkins needed no alarm clock on April 18, 1906. Nor did most of her neighbors in San Francisco. They were jolted awake at 5:12 a.m. "I was wakened by the crash of falling furniture, and a rocking, heaving house," Watkins later wrote. The violent shaking lasted less than a minute. Yet it seemed much longer.

During that grim minute, the ground shook. The quake threw people from their beds. Objects crashed to the floor. Buildings toppled. All the while, the sun rose into a clear blue sky.

Mrs. Watkins and her husband rushed outside. They found a strange scene. The streets were full of frightened people. Many were still in their pajamas!

All over town, buildings had crumbled. Cable car tracks were twisted. City Hall lay in ruins.

Among all the chaos, a famous opera singer leaned out his hotel window and sang. He wanted to make sure he hadn't lost his voice!

What had happened? The answer lay beneath San Franciscans' feet. Their city lies along the San Andreas Fault. It is a 600-mile-long gash in Earth's surface.

The fault marks the boundary between two plates. A plate is a large piece of Earth's surface. Plates fit together like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

These plates move across our planet. For the most part, they inch along. For example, the plate on the west side of the San Andreas Fault slides slowly north. It moves only about 1.5 inches each year.

Every once in a while, the plate gets jammed up. Then it suddenly jerks northward. On April 18, 1906, it moved 20 feet in less than a minute. That triggered one of the largest quakes ever to rattle the United States.

At first, Mrs. Watkins considered herself lucky. Only a few things in her house had broken. Best of all, she and her husband were okay.

Then things got worse. San Francisco caught fire! Moments later, Watkins saw five columns of smoke billowing skyward.

The earthquake had broken many of the city's water pipes. That meant no water to put out the fires. Building after building went up in flames. By afternoon, most of the downtown area was on fire.

Firefighters began blowing up houses to stop the flames from spreading. That night, Mrs. Watkins watched the scene from a hill near her home. She saw flames as far as she could see.

As the inferno raged, people fled. They took everything they could. Some people went by boat. Thousands more huddled together in parks on the edge of the city.

By the time the fire finally stopped, 28,000 buildings were gone. The fire had destroyed more buildings than the earthquake had. San Francisco was nearly destroyed. About 225,000 people were homeless.

Among the homeless were Dr. and Mrs. Watkins. Their large house was totally destroyed. So they stayed with friends whose houses had been spared. What would they do next? Would they move to another city? Would they rebuild their home?

You would think the people of San Francisco would be in despair. But many were just glad to be alive.

Things improved fast. Help arrived from all over the world. The Army set up tent camps in the city's parks. Soldiers kept the camps safe and clean.

Then the city built thousands of neat little green cottages. Families could rent these cottages for almost nothing. Later, they bought the cottages.

Meanwhile, city officials planned a new San Francisco. They designed a grand city, with glorious buildings.

San Franciscans looked forward to building their city anew, bigger and more beautiful than ever. And you know what? They did! Only nine years after the great quake, San Francisco showed off by hosting an international fair.

Eleanor Watkins shared her city’s pride. "The spirit of this people is the most wonderful thing I ever dreamed of," she wrote. "I am proud to call myself a San Franciscan."

Article by Beth Geiger. Top-of-page photo © Bettmann/Corbis. "The Great Quake" appears on pages 10-17 of our April 2006 issue.

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