The golden hydrant

While in San Francisco this weekend, I went searching for the Golden Hydrant. This was the fire hydrant that the firemen found miraculously to still be working on April 20, 1906, when The Earthquake (two days earlier) had broken the water pipes. The horses were too exhausted to drag the fire engine up the hill, so the firemen and civilians dragged it up the hill together, and, linking the fire hoses, they used this hydrant to save their homes. Every year on the anniversary of The Earthquake, they paint the hydrant gold.

Some of the gorgeous old homes saved by the Golden Hydrant. You can't see it in the picture, but one of them has a sign that says "Built in 1874" (which would have been two years after the Lone Pike earthquake).
The hydrant is on one corner of Mission Dolores Park, where the refugees were assembled. You can easily imagine the crowds of refugees sitting here watching the flames consume the city all the way down to the waterfront. (You can see the reguee tents here. They were eventually replaced with shacks.)

(Click to enlarge)