Why Are There Giant Brick Circles in San Francisco? Hint: It Involves Earthquakes, Explosions, and Unbreakable Fire Hydrants!

Why Are There Giant Brick Circles in San Francisco? Hint: It Involves Earthquakes, Explosions, and Unbreakable Fire Hydrants!

So now, every time you see one of those big mysterious brick circles in San Francisco, you’re gonna know the answer. But spoiler alert: it’s not alien crop circles or secret hipster art installations.

Here’s the real tea: San Francisco is basically a dance floor for earthquakes. On April 18th, 1906, a 7.9-magnitude quake turned the city into what can only be described as a real-life Jenga disaster. Buildings toppled, the ground cracked open like a stale croissant, and ruptured gas mains lit up the city like an overambitious fireworks show.

But wait, it gets better: the firefighters? Their hoses were dry. Why? The quake didn’t just crack buildings—it broke the water pipes too. Firefighters were left watching the city burn while the few surviving hydrants stood there like, “Don’t look at me, I’m trying my best.”

That’s when the legend of the Golden Fire Hydrant was born—yes, it’s real. It was one of the few hydrants still working during the Great Fire. Locals even painted it gold to honor its heroic service. But not all hydrants got gold medals.

Now, those brick circles? They’re not modern art or fancy sidewalks. They’re the tops of underground water cisterns—basically giant emergency water tanks. Back in the 1800s, San Francisco had been torched so many times (seriously, it was like a city-sized barbecue) that they finally built 23 underground cisterns. But by the late 19th century, they figured, “Eh, we’ve got enough pipes now, let’s just phase these out.”

Spoiler: That was a bad idea.

The 1906 quake proved the fancy water system wasn’t so fancy after all. But those old cisterns? They were like, “I got this.” They helped firefighters save parts of the city. In fact, after the disaster, San Francisco was like, “You know what? Let’s build 150 of these bad boys, just in case.”

Some are marked with brick circles, some with rectangles, because apparently consistency isn’t San Francisco’s thing. But next time you walk over one of those weird shapes, just remember: you’re stepping on a symbol of resilience, ingenuity, and the city’s determination not to burn itself to the ground again.

Oh, and may the brave firefighters and residents who were lost rest in peace.