I saw “Titanic — The Exhibition” at the Metreon in San Francisco. A detailed model of the Titanic sat outside the exhibit area. Another model inside showed the Titanic as a rusted hulk buried on the ocean floor. Three-hundred items were on display that captured life as it was in 1912. Also reproduced were the passenger quarters, a hallway, a cafe and the grand staircase. You can touch the simulated frozen iceberg to feel how cold the real iceberg was when it hit the Titanic. The “Big Piece” near the end of the exhibit was a huge 15-ton section of the hull that came from the 11-story-tall ship.

I learned of several trivia facts that I didn’t know about this disaster.

• The Titanic had three million rivets whereas the Golden Gate Bridge has 1.2 million rivets.
• The captain ordered the band to keep on playing to keep people calm as they evacuated the ship. None of the band members survived. Musicians from San Francisco took up a large collection for the families of the band.
• The sinking of the Titanic was the first event covered by the international media as reports got sent out over telegraph and wireless (early radio).

For all the fascination with an event that happened almost a century ago, you still can’t escape the fact that 1,500 people died, the stories of people sacrificing themselves to save others, or the captain’s haunting last words: “Every man for himself.”