The whole commercial and office section of the city on the north side of Market street from the ferry building to Tenth street had been consumed in the hell of flame, while hardly a building was standing in the district south of Market street. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, despite the heroic work of the firemen and the troops of dynamiters, who razed building after building and blew up property valued at millions, the flames spread across Market street to the north side and swept up Montgomery street, practically to Washington street. Along Montgomery street were some of the richest banks and commercial houses in San Francisco. [Illustration: Copyright by R. L. Forrest 1906. =STREET TORN UP BY EARTHQUAKE.= A photograph of street in front of new Postoffice. Note how the car tracks are thrown up and twisted.] [Illustration: =STOCKTON STREET FROM UNION SQUARE.=] [Illustration: =GRANT AVENUE FROM MARKET STREET.=] [Illustration: =MISSION STREET, SAN FRANCISCO.= Photographed from Fourth Street.] [Illustration: =O'FARRELL STREET.= A new steel building which was being erected shown at the right.] [Illustration: =LOOKING NORTH FROM SIXTH AND MARKET STREETS.=] [Illustration: =THE ORPHEUM THEATER ON O'FARRELL STREET.=] The famous Mills building and the new Merchants Exchange were still standing, but the Mutual Life Insurance building and scores of bank and office buildings were on fire, while blocks of other houses were in the path of the flames and nothing seemed to be at hand to stay their progress. Nearly every big factory building had been wiped out of existence and a complete enumeration of them would look like a copy of the city directory. Many of the finest buildings in the city had been leveled to dust by the terrific charges of dynamite in hopeless effort to stay the horror of fire. In this work many heroic soldiers, policemen and firemen were maimed or killed outright. At 10 o'clock at night the fire was unabated and thousands of people were fleeing to the hills and clamoring for places on the ferry boats at the ferry landing. From the Cliff House came word that the great pleasure resort and show place of the city, which stood upon a foundation of solid rock, had been swept into the sea. This report proved to be unfounded, but it was not until three days later that any one got close enough to the Cliff House to discover that it was still safe. One of the big losses of the day was the destruction of St. Ignatius' church and college at Van Ness avenue and Hayes street. This was the greatest Jesuitical institution in the west and built at a cost of $2,000,000.