At 5:12 a.m., the shaking started 110 years ago today. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake and ensuing fires destroyed more than 80 percent of San Francisco and killed about 3,000 people.
The destruction inspired photographers from around the world and the 1906 earthquake became one of the first natural disasters widely documented with photos and early motion pictures.
John Henry Mentz worked as a staff photographer for United Railroads at the time. On April 18, and in the ensuing days, he took more than 200 images with his large-format camera and created a case of 6 1/2-by-8 1/2 inch negative plates.
Three weeks later, George Lawrence shot his famous "San Francisco in Ruins" with a 49-pound camera flying about 2,000 feet above the bay with 17 Conyne kites strung together with piano wire cable.
Photographer Frederick Eugene Ives captured the destruction in color photographs six months later, using a device called a Krőmgram.
