. San Francisco’s Lombard Street Is The Crookedest Street in the World - Vivaboo
Monday, November 29th

San Francisco’s Lombard Street Is The Crookedest Street in the World



While you may not know it by name, San Francisco’s Lombard Street is often touted as the “Crookedest Street in the World”. But Lombard Street wasn’t always that way. Back in the early 1900′s it was just another residential street in the San Francisco hills, with the one exception that it had a 27% grade, which made it all but impossible for most vehicles to climb.

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Image by wikimedia

Thanks to the brilliant idea of one of the Lombard Street residents, in the early 1920′s, this one block section of Lombard Street was given a complete makeover. The Lombard Street of today now consists of a set of stairs on each side of the hill for pedestrians, an eight hair-pin turn, red brick road for cars to travel downhill and beautiful plants and flowers between each turn. Is there any wonder it became a tourist attraction?

Once you are in San Francisco, it doesn’t take long to get there. Just take the Powell-Hyde Cable Car line which stops at the crest of Lombard Street and there it is. Make sure you allow yourself at least half an hour to walk up/down the hill, take pictures, watch the cars come down the hill, take in the views, etc.

For those of you who are daring enough to drive down Lombard Street, which I highly recommend, you’ll probably need more time than that. (Okay, maybe you don’t need to be that daring…but remember it is eight hair-pin turns on a 27 degree slope. Wheeeeeeeee!)

But if you want some real excitement, grab your big wheel (or borrow your kid’s) and head over to Lombard Street on Easter Sunday for the annual Bring Your Own Big Wheel Race! I mean seriously…when else would you get a chance to ride down the crookedest street in the world on a big wheel?!

Lombard Street here we come!

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Comments

  • Stephanie on January 4th, 2011

    My 10-year old son and I drove down Lombard Street when we visited San Francisco last spring. I think it was the highlight of the trip!


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