“A bicyclist rides towards the fallen Valencia St. Hotel and a huge sinkhole that has opened up in the street.”

Shawn Clover has stitched together a brutal set of photos that blends snaps of 1906's earthquake aftermath with corresponding scenes from today.  From the sounds of it, this was no easy process:

I first put together a good-sized library of historical photos that looked like they have potential to be blended. But unfortunately most of these photos end up on the digital cutting room floor because there’s simply no way to get the same photo today because either a building or a tree is in the way. Other potential photos have copyright claims with no way to get a release. Once I get a good location, I get everything lined up just right. My goal is to stand in the exact spot where the original photographer stood. Doing this needs to take into account equivalent focal length and how the lens was shifted. I take plenty of shots, each nudged around a bit at each location. Just moving one foot to the left changes everything.

He has 25 historical stitches completed so far, split between two parts (including a pretty grim photo of a pile of dead horses rotting in front of a Mercedes in part one), with a promise of more on the way.

Here's a couple more shots to get you started:

“People stroll by the original adobe Mission Dolores which survived, while the brick church next door was destroyed.”

“Cars travel down S. Van Ness [at 17th], which has buckled after the quake.”

“Cable car #455 rests halfway in the partially-destroyed cable car barn.”

[Shawn Clover | via Burrito Justice]

Workers paving a dirt and gravel Mission Street (at 18th), Dec. 1910

As we mentioned in last week's post about what Bi-Rite looked like in 1947, the SF Public Library is right in the middle of scanning a bunch of ancient Mission District photography and posting it online for the benefit of late-night nerding out.  And lucky for us, library photo curator Christina Moretta dumped a fresh batch of previously unseen photos on Flickr on Tuesday.

Let's dig in:

Potereo and 25th, looking south towards a very-much under-developed Bernal Heights and future concrete nest of highway on and off-ramps.  To the right is the Potrero Ave. Saloon and Boarding House, advertising Hibernia Steam and Gibbons Whiskey in the windows. (You can catch another view of the bar here.)

Hashagans Cocktails on Mission at 25th, photographed in 1956…

…which you might recognize now as La Taqueria.

Carl's Pastry Shop at the corner of 18th and Guerrero in 1947, now home to Tartine.

A milk shake and sandwich joint at the corner of 18th and Dolores, also photographed in 1947…

…which is the current home to Dolores Park Cafe (from the looks of it, they still have the same tiles beneath their windows).

A whole bunch of the photos uploaded were of car crashes, which I guess were quite the social occasion back in the day.  Here we see some rust bucket flipped on 24th and Bryant, looking towards Potrero Hill.  “The Milk Shake King” is prominently placed on the corner, with the Roosevelt Tamale Parlor vying for attention mid-block.  But what's this?

Pop's, everyone's favorite urine-scented air hockey and dollar High Life dive, is smack-dab in the middle of the block.  Which means, at some point, someone thought it wise to toss that old neon sign in the trash and re-open the bar down the block.  Weird.

Anyway, here's another car that took a tumble.  The one at Folsom and Army in 1942, looking towards a still largely undeveloped Bernal Heights.

#MUNIfail, 1942-style (this one's at 23rd and Mission, with the present-day Walgreen's on the right).

And, of course, some things never change.

[Should you feel so inclined, you can check out the rest of the dump on the SF Public Library's Flickr]

Bernalwood just broke a story that's sure to be 'big news' for Bay Area crazies. 

But, really, it’s true! Bigfoot WAS spotted today on Bernal Hill, and Neighbor Frank was there with a camera to capture the wild beast on camera.

…Neighbor Frank writes:

My wife and I were walking around the top of the hill just before noon today and spotted Bigfoot, or something like that, running up the hill near the top of Rosenkranz Street.

We thought that maybe Bernalwood was Bigfoot’s new habitat, but in the heat, Bigfoot removed his head and looked more like a person in a costume, surrounded by two photographers.

This is either an awesome prank with a homemade ghillie suit, or 'Neighbor Frank' stumbled upon the principle photography for a Zodiac re-boot about a disgruntled Marine Corps sniper who finds out the prolific serial killer was his biological father.

Bernalwood post: “BIGFOOT SIGHTING ON BERNAL HILL!! (FINALLY!!)”

New evidence suggests that last week's declaration that cats and dogs as fashion accessories are played out might have been slightly premature, seeing as though this guy seems to have figured out how to fasten a goddamn live animal to his hat.

(Also, sorry about the fedora.)

[Photo by Meixellent]