.gif)
Lombard Street (San Francisco)
Encyclopedia
Lombard Street is an east–west street
in San Francisco, California. It is famous for having a steep, one-block section that consists of eight tight hairpin turn
s.
and runs east through the Cow Hollow neighborhood. For 12 blocks between Broderick Street and Van Ness Avenue
, it is a principal arterial road
that is co-signed as U.S. Route 101. Lombard Street then continues through the Russian Hill and Telegraph Hill
neighborhoods, breaks off at a point becoming Telegraph Hill Boulevard. That leads to Pioneer Park and Coit Tower
. Lombard Street starts again at Winthrop Street and finally terminates at The Embarcadero as a collector road
.
Lombard Street is best known for the one-way section on Russian Hill between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets, in which the roadway has eight sharp turns (or switchback
s) that have earned the street the distinction of being the crookedest [most winding] street in the world (though this title is contested - see "See Also" links). The switchback's design, first suggested by property owner Carl Henry and instituted in 1922, was born out of necessity in order to reduce the hill's natural 27% grade, which was too steep for most vehicles to climb. It is also a serious hazard to pedestrians, who are accustomed to a more reasonable sixteen-degree incline. The crooked section of the street, which is about 1/4 mile (400 m) long, is reserved for one-way traffic traveling east (downhill) and is paved with red bricks. The speed limit in this section is 5 mile per hour.
In 1999, a Crooked Street Task Force was created to try to solve traffic problems in the neighborhoods around the winding section of Lombard Street. In 2001, the Task Force decided that it would not be legal to permanently close the block to vehicular traffic. Instead, the Task Force decided to institute a summer parking ban in the area, to bar eastbound traffic on major holidays, and to increase fines for parking in the area. The Task Force also proposed the idea of using minibuses to ferry sightseers to the famous block, although residents debated the efficiency of such a solution, since one of the attractions of touring the area is driving along the twisting section of the street.
The Powell-Hyde cable car line
stops at the top of this block.
Famous past residents of Lombard Street include Rowena Meeks Abdy
, an early California painter who worked in the style of Impressionism
.
(1958), Alfred Hitchcock
chose to make 900 Lombard Street the home of John "Scottie" Ferguson.
The street, and the difficulty of driving it, is parodied in the Bill Cosby
sketch "Driving in San Francisco" on the album Why Is There Air?
(recorded in Las Vegas
):
It was also included in the comic car chase scene in Peter Bogdanovich
's film What's Up, Doc?
(1972) starring Barbra Streisand
and Ryan O'Neal
.
The street is included in a car chase sequence in Clint Eastwood
's crime drama Magnum Force
(1973) starring Clint Eastwood
, Hal Holbrook
, and David Soul
.
In the Monk
episode "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike," there is a scene where Adrian Monk
goes to the Mayor's office during a citywide sanitation union strike. He suggests his idea of evacuating the whole city, burning it down, then burning the ashes, and rebuilding the city, saying "Think of it, we rebuild San Francisco ...from scratch. Start fresh, everything clean. Everything brand new. Gonna have that new city smell. Fresh off the lot, we can even straighten out Lombard Street while we’re at it." In the tie-in novel Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu
, when Monk and Natalie Teeger
visit the Mayor's office during a major police strike, Monk brings up his request to straighten Lombard Street again. By coincidence, Monk is a man of order and cleanliness, so the crookedest portion of Lombard is a violation of his standards.
In American Dad, Steve mentions Lombard Street and even shows a picture of it.
The street features in multiple video games, including the 2000 video game Midtown Madness 2
, and the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
as Windy Windy Windy Windy street.
In 2010, the street was briefly featured in an episode of MythBusters. The MythBusters "delivery crew" encountered problems during an experiment when their step van could not complete the tight turns on Lombard Street, culminating with the delivery truck stalling and holding up traffic at the bottom of the hill.
In 1994, the MTV reality show ″The Real World: San Francisco
" was filmed at 949 Lombard Street.
The game San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing
shows Lombard Street as a shortcut on the circuit 3.
In the game Driver: San Francisco
, there is an Achievement/Trophy for driving down Lombard Street at at least 20 miles per hour without hitting any obstacles.
The entire route is in San Francisco.
Street
A street is a paved public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, but is more often paved with a hard, durable...
in San Francisco, California. It is famous for having a steep, one-block section that consists of eight tight hairpin turn
Hairpin turn
A hairpin turn , named for its resemblance to a hairpin/bobby pin, is a bend in a road with a very acute inner angle, making it necessary for an oncoming vehicle to turn almost 180° to continue on the road. Such turns in ramps and trails may be called switchbacks in American English, by analogy...
s.
Route description
Lombard Street begins at Presidio Boulevard inside The PresidioPresidio of San Francisco
The Presidio of San Francisco is a park on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area...
and runs east through the Cow Hollow neighborhood. For 12 blocks between Broderick Street and Van Ness Avenue
Van Ness Avenue (San Francisco)
Van Ness Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare in San Francisco, California, running from Market St north to the Bay. Originally named Marlette Street, the street was renamed Van Ness Avenue in honor of the city's seventh mayor, James Van Ness. Van Ness Avenue begins at Market Street near the Civic...
, it is a principal arterial road
Arterial road
An arterial road, or arterial thoroughfare, is a high-capacity urban road. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector roads to freeways, and between urban centres at the highest level of service possible. As such, many arteries are limited-access roads, or feature...
that is co-signed as U.S. Route 101. Lombard Street then continues through the Russian Hill and Telegraph Hill
Telegraph Hill, San Francisco
Telegraph Hill refers to a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It is one of San Francisco's 44 hills, and one of its original "Seven Hills."-Location:...
neighborhoods, breaks off at a point becoming Telegraph Hill Boulevard. That leads to Pioneer Park and Coit Tower
Coit Tower
Coit Tower is a tower in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The tower, in the city's Pioneer Park, was built in 1933 at the request of Lillie Hitchcock Coit to beautify the city of San Francisco; Coit bequeathed one-third of her estate to the city "to be expended in an...
. Lombard Street starts again at Winthrop Street and finally terminates at The Embarcadero as a collector road
Collector road
A collector road or distributor road is a low to moderate-capacity road which serve to move traffic from local streets to arterial roads. Unlike arterials, collectors are also designed to provide access to residential properties...
.
Lombard Street is best known for the one-way section on Russian Hill between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets, in which the roadway has eight sharp turns (or switchback
Hairpin turn
A hairpin turn , named for its resemblance to a hairpin/bobby pin, is a bend in a road with a very acute inner angle, making it necessary for an oncoming vehicle to turn almost 180° to continue on the road. Such turns in ramps and trails may be called switchbacks in American English, by analogy...
s) that have earned the street the distinction of being the crookedest [most winding] street in the world (though this title is contested - see "See Also" links). The switchback's design, first suggested by property owner Carl Henry and instituted in 1922, was born out of necessity in order to reduce the hill's natural 27% grade, which was too steep for most vehicles to climb. It is also a serious hazard to pedestrians, who are accustomed to a more reasonable sixteen-degree incline. The crooked section of the street, which is about 1/4 mile (400 m) long, is reserved for one-way traffic traveling east (downhill) and is paved with red bricks. The speed limit in this section is 5 mile per hour.
In 1999, a Crooked Street Task Force was created to try to solve traffic problems in the neighborhoods around the winding section of Lombard Street. In 2001, the Task Force decided that it would not be legal to permanently close the block to vehicular traffic. Instead, the Task Force decided to institute a summer parking ban in the area, to bar eastbound traffic on major holidays, and to increase fines for parking in the area. The Task Force also proposed the idea of using minibuses to ferry sightseers to the famous block, although residents debated the efficiency of such a solution, since one of the attractions of touring the area is driving along the twisting section of the street.
The Powell-Hyde cable car line
San Francisco cable car system
The San Francisco cable car system is the world's last permanently operational manually operated cable car system, in the US sense of a tramway whose cars are pulled along by cables embedded in the street. It is an icon of San Francisco, California...
stops at the top of this block.
Famous past residents of Lombard Street include Rowena Meeks Abdy
Rowena Meeks Abdy
Rowena Meeks Abdy was an American painter who flourished in Northern California in the early 20th century. Working in oil, watercolour and charcoal, she achieved prominence in the en plein air painting school and is held in several permanent collections of significant museums...
, an early California painter who worked in the style of Impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
.
In media
In his film VertigoVertigo (film)
Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A...
(1958), Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
chose to make 900 Lombard Street the home of John "Scottie" Ferguson.
The street, and the difficulty of driving it, is parodied in the Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
sketch "Driving in San Francisco" on the album Why Is There Air?
Why Is There Air?
Why Is There Air? is Bill Cosby's third album. It was recorded at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. It won the 1965 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.-Background:...
(recorded in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
):
- "They built a street up there called Lombard Street that goes straight down, and they're not satisfied with you killing yourself that way—they put grooves and curves and everything in it, and they put flowers there where they've buried the people that have killed themselves. Lombard Street, wonderful street." (audience reacts with knowing cheers and applause).
It was also included in the comic car chase scene in Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich is an American film historian, director, writer, actor, producer, and critic. He was part of the wave of "New Hollywood" directors, which included William Friedkin, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Michael Cimino, and Francis Ford Coppola...
's film What's Up, Doc?
What's Up, Doc? (1972 film)
What's Up, Doc? is a 1972 screwball comedy film released by Warner Bros., directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, and Madeline Kahn...
(1972) starring Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
and Ryan O'Neal
Ryan O'Neal
Charles Patrick Ryan O'Neal , better known as Ryan O'Neal, is an American actor best known for his appearances in the ABC nighttime soap opera Peyton Place and for his roles in such films as Paper Moon , Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon , A Bridge Too Far , and Love Story , for which he received...
.
The street is included in a car chase sequence in Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
's crime drama Magnum Force
Magnum Force
Magnum Force is a 1973 American police thriller film and the second to feature Clint Eastwood as maverick cop Harry Callahan after the 1971 film Dirty Harry. Ted Post, who also directed Eastwood in TV's Rawhide and the feature film Hang 'Em High, directed the second film in the Dirty Harry series...
(1973) starring Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
, Hal Holbrook
Hal Holbrook
Harold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook, Jr. is an American actor. His television roles include Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo. He is also known for his role in the 2007 film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for...
, and David Soul
David Soul
David Soul is an American-British actor and singer, best known for his role as Detective Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchinson in the television programme Starsky and Hutch . He gained British citizenship in 2004.-Early life:...
.
In the Monk
Monk (TV series)
Monk is an American comedy-drama detective mystery television series created by Andy Breckman and starring Tony Shalhoub as the titular character, Adrian Monk. It originally ran from 2002 to 2009 and is primarily a mystery series, although it has dark and comic touches.The series debuted on July...
episode "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike," there is a scene where Adrian Monk
Adrian Monk
Adrian Monk is a fictional character portrayed by Tony Shalhoub and the protagonist of the USA Network television series Monk. He is a renowned former homicide detective for the San Francisco Police Department...
goes to the Mayor's office during a citywide sanitation union strike. He suggests his idea of evacuating the whole city, burning it down, then burning the ashes, and rebuilding the city, saying "Think of it, we rebuild San Francisco ...from scratch. Start fresh, everything clean. Everything brand new. Gonna have that new city smell. Fresh off the lot, we can even straighten out Lombard Street while we’re at it." In the tie-in novel Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu
Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu
Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu is the third novel by writer Lee Goldberg to be based on the television series Monk. Like the previous two books, the book is narrated by Natalie Teeger, Monk's assistant.-Plot summary:From the jacket summary:...
, when Monk and Natalie Teeger
Natalie Teeger
Natalie J. Teeger is a fictional character on the American crime drama Monk. She becomes Adrian Monk's personal assistant midway through the third season of the show...
visit the Mayor's office during a major police strike, Monk brings up his request to straighten Lombard Street again. By coincidence, Monk is a man of order and cleanliness, so the crookedest portion of Lombard is a violation of his standards.
In American Dad, Steve mentions Lombard Street and even shows a picture of it.
The street features in multiple video games, including the 2000 video game Midtown Madness 2
Midtown Madness 2
Midtown Madness 2 is a free roam racing/arcade sequel to Midtown Madness, part of the Midtown Madness series, developed by Angel Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios, which features a range of vehicles which can be driven around London and San Francisco.-Gameplay:The game features...
, and the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 open world action video game developed by British games developer Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, the fifth original console release and eighth game overall...
as Windy Windy Windy Windy street.
In 2010, the street was briefly featured in an episode of MythBusters. The MythBusters "delivery crew" encountered problems during an experiment when their step van could not complete the tight turns on Lombard Street, culminating with the delivery truck stalling and holding up traffic at the bottom of the hill.
In 1994, the MTV reality show ″The Real World: San Francisco
The Real World: San Francisco
The Real World: San Francisco is the third season of MTV's reality television series The Real World, which focuses on a group of diverse strangers living together for several months in a different city each season, as cameras follow their lives and interpersonal relationships...
" was filmed at 949 Lombard Street.
The game San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing
San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing
San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing is a video game developed by Atari Games and published by Midway Games. This game was first released in arcades in 1996 and was ported to Nintendo 64 in 1997 and the PlayStation in 1998...
shows Lombard Street as a shortcut on the circuit 3.
In the game Driver: San Francisco
Driver: San Francisco
Driver: San Francisco is a sandbox-style action driving video game developed by Ubisoft Reflections and published by Ubisoft. The game formally was unveiled at E3 2010 and was released in Australia on September 1, 2011, Europe on September 2, 2011 and North America on September 6, 2011 on...
, there is an Achievement/Trophy for driving down Lombard Street at at least 20 miles per hour without hitting any obstacles.
Major intersections
- Note: Except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured in 1964, based on the alignment as it existed at that time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage.
The entire route is in San Francisco.
| Postmile |
Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Presidio Boulevard | ||
| West end of US 101 overlap | ||
| East end of US 101 overlap | ||
| Gap in route | ||
| The Embarcadero The Embarcadero (San Francisco) The Embarcadero is the eastern waterfront and roadway of the Port of San Francisco, San Francisco, California, along San Francisco Bay, constructed atop an engineered seawall on reclaimed land, and derives its name from the Spanish verb embarcar, meaning "to embark"... |
Former SR 480 California State Route 480 State Route 480 was a state highway in San Francisco, California, United States, consisting of the elevated double-decker Embarcadero Freeway , the partly elevated Doyle Drive approach to the Golden Gate Bridge and the proposed and unbuilt section in between. The unbuilt section from Doyle Drive to... |
|
See also
- 49-Mile Scenic Drive49-Mile Scenic DriveThe 49-Mile Scenic Drive in San Francisco highlights many of the city's major attractions and historic structures.Opened on September 14, 1938 as a promotion for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, it...
- Lombard bankingLombard bankingLombard banking refers to the historical use of the term 'Lombard' for a pawn shop in the Middle Ages, a type of banking that originated with the prosperous northern Italian region of Lombardy. The term was sometimes used in a derogatory sense and some were accused of usury.-History:A Christian...
, after which the street was named - Vermont StreetVermont Street (San Francisco)Vermont Street is a north-south street located in the Potrero Hill district of San Francisco, California. It begins at Division Street near the South of Market area, and runs south, paralleling the U.S. Route 101 freeway. The street ends when it meets 22nd Street.A section of the street between...
, the other San Francisco street claimed to be the "most crooked" has seven turns instead of eight, but its hill is steeper than Lombard's - Snake AlleySnake AlleySnake Alley is a street located in Burlington, Iowa, once recognized by Ripley's Believe It or Not as the Crookedest Street in the World.The physical limitations and steep elevation of Heritage Hill inspired the construction of Snake Alley in 1894...
in Burlington, Iowa, once recognized by Ripley's Believe It or Not! as "The Crookedest Street in the World" Like Lombard Street it has eight turns but over a shorter distance.