Mysterious Circles in San Francisco Actually Useful—City Accidentally Did Something Right in 1906

Mysterious Circles in San Francisco Actually Useful—City Accidentally Did Something Right in 1906

Ever wandered through San Francisco and stumbled across those big brick circles in the street and thought, “Is this where they summon tech bros or sacrifice e-scooters?”

Turns out—nope. They’re emergency water cisterns, built because San Francisco once caught on fire so badly that the city said, “You know what? Maybe we should plan for this next time.”

Flashback to April 18, 1906:

An earthquake hits at 7.9 on the Richter scale—basically nature’s way of saying, “This grid system? Nah.”

Result?

25,000 buildings gone

490 city blocks fried

Firefighters armed with buckets and hope

Water mains: “We don’t work during seismic events, sorry!”

Only one hero saved the day:

The Golden Fire Hydrant. Yes, an actual hydrant—still painted gold—was one of the only water sources that didn’t quit mid-crisis. It’s like if your entire group project failed but the intern accidentally saved the day.

So, city officials did the unthinkable:

They learned a lesson.

Fast-forward:

They build 150 underground cisterns to store emergency water, just in case another disaster hits. Some marked with circles, others rectangles—because even in the face of catastrophe, San Francisco refuses to standardize anything.

So now, every time you see one of those weird brick circles, you’re not looking at a lost art installation or Elon Musk’s new “ventilation experiment”—

You’re looking at proof that the city once invested in actual infrastructure that could save lives.

Wild, right?

Of course, now we’re back to debating whether to fix potholes or install more $2 million bus stops—but hey, at least 1906 San Francisco had a backup plan.