Detour #240: Lombard Street, San Francisco, USA
Photo Nischal Malla / Unsplash
Driving down Lombard Street is a unique and somewhat unnerving driving challenge, even though it has a recommended 5mph speed limit.
Known as the world’s most crooked street, its eight tight high-kerbed hairpins wind down a steep hill like a toboggan run, lined with beautiful blooming hydrangeas and with a stunning view of San Francisco Bay straight out ahead.
The street itself is a long, city-bisecting thoroughfare running east-to-west all the way from The Presidio to The Embarcadero, but it is this small, single-block section in the Russian Hill district, a stone’s throw away from Fisherman’s Wharf, that makes it famous.
It was built in 1922 after local residents grew tired of a near-25 per cent incline that made it almost impossible for any car of the time to drive up. After starting off as a two-way street, it was made a one-way downhill run 17 years later and has stayed that way ever since.
You’ll find it between the north-south running streets of Hyde at the top and Leavenworth at the bottom, and the only way to access it is straight along Lombard from further east. If there’s a queue, inching up the cobble-clad hill to reach it without dropping back onto the car behind can be a challenge in itself. Once there, take the way down in a low gear – if your car allows – and watch the wheels on the high kerbs as you round the corners.
An estimated one million vehicles per year – averaging 250 each hour – are driven down the slippery brick-paved 180m-long road and in peak periods – usually sunny weekends – you could be waiting up to 20 minutes to take your turn. If you fancy a challenge after driving it, a set of stairs takes you back to the top. Or you can drive back around and walk down!
Once you have ticked this drive off, though, you might want to head a few blocks south west – because although Lombard Street is world famous, its claim to fame is contested. Technically, the seven-turn section of Vermont Street between 20th and 22nd streets is actually more twisty, so try that out as well…
Words Will Gray
Additional Photography Simon Zhu / Oliver Plattner / Justin Shen