The newly formed state of California, influenced primarily by the gold rush that began in 1848, caused the population to expand dramatically upward. As more and more people settled in the future area of ​​what would be called San Francisco, the area's leaders were finally able to officially establish the city of San Francisco in 1856. The invention of the cable car in the late 1880s it helped ease traversal of the city's steep hills, which ended up allowing people to live further from work and transportation to the heart of the city. San Francisco began with a base population of about 30,000 people and increased to about 13 times that size when an earthquake hit the city in 1906. The earthquake and fires put the poorly constructed buildings of previous years in sharp relief. The destruction of San Francisco in the 1906 earthquake and fires allowed the city to be rebuilt with bigger and better buildings that increased business thereafter. On the morning of Wednesday, April 18, 1906, an earthquake struck the city of San Francisco at 5:12 am according to seismograph records. It was remembered as particularly violent, and everyone nearby woke up to white dust in the air from the falling debris. As recalled by a witness to the event, “I was woken up by a very strong earthquake. The shaking was so violent that it almost knocked me out of bed... As soon as it was all over I got up and went to the window, and I saw the street full of 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 by the earthquake and then when fires broke out everywhere...... middle of paper ......o. Chicago, Illinois: Thompson and Thomas, 1906. Print.Linthicum, Richard and Trumbull White. Complete Horror Story of San Francisco...: Also includes a vivid depiction of the recent deadly eruption of Mount Vesuvius. San Diego, California: Hubert D. Russell, 1906. Print.Smith, Dennis. San Francisco Is Burning: The Untold Story of the Earthquake and Fires of 1906. New York: Viking, 2005. Print.Stetson, James B. Account of my experiences in the San Francisco earthquake and fire. Palo Alto, CA: Lewis Osborne, 1969. Print.United States. National Park Service. "1906 Earthquake: Refugee Camps." National Park Service. U.S. 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 01. 2014.