The buildings that collapsed in the city were all flimsy wooden
buildings and old brick structures, the steel frame buildings, even
the score or more in course of construction, escaping injury from the
earthquake shock. Of the former, one of the most complete wrecks was
the Valencia Hotel, a four-story wooden building, which collapsed into a
heap of ruins, pinning many persons under its splintered timbers.


SKYSCRAPERS EARTHQUAKE PROOF.


In fact, as the reports of damage wrought by the earthquake came in,
the conviction grew that one of the safest places during the earthquake
shock was on one of the upper floors of the skyscraper office buildings
or hotels. As a matter of fact, not a single person, so far as can be
learned, lost his or her life or was seriously injured in any of the
tall, steel frame structures in the city, although they rocked during
the quake like a ship in a gale.

The loss of life was caused in almost every case by the collapse of
frame structures, which the native San Franciscan believed was the
safest of all in an earthquake, or by the shaking down of portions of
brick or stone buildings which did not possess an iron framework. The
manner in which the tall steel structures withstood the shock is a
complete vindication of the strongest claims yet made for them, and it
is made doubly interesting from the fact that this is the first occasion
on which the effect of an earthquake of any proportions on a tall steel
structure could be studied.