The new state of California, influenced mainly by the gold rush starting in 1848, caused its population to expand considerably. As more and more people settled the future area of ​​what would be called San Francisco, area leaders were finally able to officially establish the city of San Francisco in 1856. The invention of the cable car at the end of the 1880s helped make crossing the city easier. the city's steep hills, which eventually allowed people to live further from work and transportation to the heart of the city. San Francisco started with a base population of about 30,000 and grew to about 13 times that size by the time the earthquake struck the city in 1906. The earthquake and fires greatly exposed the poorly constructed buildings from previous years. The destruction of San Francisco from the earthquake and fires of 1906 allowed a city to be rebuilt with bigger and better buildings which then generated more business. On the morning of Wednesday, April 18, 1906, an earthquake struck the city of San Francisco at 5 a.m. :12 according to seismograph records. It is remembered as being particularly violent and everyone in the surrounding area woke up to white dust in the air from the falling debris. As one spectator of the event recounts: “I was woken up by a very violent earthquake. The shaking was so violent that it almost made me fall out of bed... As soon as it was over, I got up, went to the window and saw the street filled with white dust . (Stetson, 21.) The strong shaking lasted 45 to 60 seconds and was felt as far north as southern Oregon and beyond Los Angeles in the south. The water supply was cut off because of the earthquake and then when fires broke out everywhere...... middle of paper ...... or. Chicago, IL: Thompson and Thomas, 1906. Print. Linthicum, Richard and Trumbull White. Complete San Francisco Horror Story...: Also including a vivid depiction of the recent deadly eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. San Diego, California: Hubert D. Russell, 1906. Print.Smith, Dennis. San Francisco Burns: The Untold Story of the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. New York: Viking, 2005. Print.Stetson, James B. Account of My Experiences During the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. Palo Alto, California: Lewis Osborne, 1969. Print, United States. National Park Service. “Earthquake of 1906: refugee camps”. National Park Service. US Department of the Interior, February 25, 2014. Web. March 01, 2014. United States Geological Survey. “The Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.” The Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. United States Geological Survey, July 18, 2012. Web. March 1. 2014.