This site was already excavated and cleared for construction of the permanent bank at the time of the Great Earthquake in 1906. Six weeks later the new building was underway. Low-bed trucks, drawn by 18-horse teams, brought in the massive granite columns in sections , which were lifted by chain blocks. The earthquake and fire of 1906 devastated four square miles of San Francisco, including most of the financial district. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and within three and a half years downtown had been rebuilt along pre-1906 lines.