232 REPORT OF THE CALIFORNIA EARTHQUAKE COMMISSION. 
suitable grade for streets and buildings. The filling was shaken together and moved 
slightly downhill. ' 
On Lombard, between Gough and Octavia Streets, is a little area, less than a block in 
extent, in which the destructive effects were of Grade B. No particularly notable effects 
were produced. It is a district of made land, formerly the site of a little lagoon in the 
sands, known as Washerwoman’s Lagoon. A portion of Union Street, between Pierce 
and Steiner Streets, not more than a quarter of a block in length, where a filling had been 
made to equalize the street grade, was shaken down into the adjacent building lot on the 
north. The north sidewalk was shifted about 10 feet to the north, and deprest about 10 
feet below its original level. The south sidewalk was deprest a few inches and shifted to 
the north from 2 to 3 feet. The paving and the cable conduit suffered more severe damage 
than at any other point in the city. The photograph (plate 888) conveys a graphic 
conception of the very great violence which occurred here. The phenomena have no 
general significance, however, despite their striking character, being merely a sliding of 
unconsolidated material not supported on the sides. But that such places are dangerous 
building sites, especially in regions subject to seismic disturbances, is unequivocally 
demonstrated. 
Along the north shore water-front, between Fillmore and Steiner Streets, from Bay 
Street to the water’s edge, was a plot of made ground occupied by a gas-producing plant. 
Here brick walls were cracked and partly thrown down; part of the wooden framework 
was wrenched out of position, and the chimney stack was broken. One of the large gas- 
containers was badly wrecked, but whether its destruction was caused directly or in some 
secondary way, as by rapid leakage, is not known. The intensity was clearly Grade B. 
Along Lyon, Baker, and Broderick Streets, north of North Point Street, is a small 
locality 2 blocks wide and 4 blocks long, where the Baker Street sewer was broken and 
frail frame buildings were thrown out of the vertical. This district was partly made land, 
but the greater part was on the point of a sand-pit. Unquestionably extensive grading 
had been done to prepare the ground for building. 
In Golden Gate Park, near the Museum, the granite railing of a stone-arch bridge was 
shattered by the shock. This was a low balustrade, with many turned granite posts set 
closely together, supporting a flat, massive granite top-rail. Such damage as it sustained 
appears to indicate an intensity of Grade B. The bridge was built on loose sand of no 
great thickness. 
On Fulton Street, between Twelfth and Thirteenth Avenues, there was much slumping 
of the street-filling down into the Park adjacent; and exactly the same sort of damage 
occurred on H Street, between Ninth and Fourteenth Avenues. Altho, under the 
definitions, the damage produced in these localities denotes intensity of Grade B, it is 
believed that the energy of the shock was not greater than elsewhere in their immediate 
neighborhoods. They were especially susceptible to damage from earthquake shock, 
being practically loose earth embankments. 
Strawberry Hill, in Golden Gate Park, is a chert knob rising abruptly in the sand wastes. 
Its summit had been leveled, but it is not known whether this was done by cutting off the 
top and filling out the upper slopes, or by filling alone. The altitude given for the present 
hill is the same as that given in the earliest accurate surveys. Much artificial stone work, 
and a circular concrete observatory building 2 stories high, had been erected upon the 
leveled hilltop. This building was of weak design, having a row of columns, with windows 
between, which rested upon a foundation wall 3 feet high and supported a heavy second- 
story balcony. The construction itself was probably good, but the observatory was 
utterly ruined by the shock. (Plates 84 and 85.) The entire lower story was sheared 
out of position, and part of the balcony fell. The cement floor showed numerous cracks 
arranged in a roughly concentric way. 
