Filbert Street (San Francisco)

Looking east up Filbert Street toward Coit Tower.

Looking up the steps

Filbert Street in San Francisco, California starts at Lyon Street 37°47′48″N 122°26′49″W / 37.7966°N 122.447°W / 37.7966; -122.447 on the east edge of The Presidio and runs east, crossing Van Ness Avenue and Columbus Avenue. It ends on Telegraph Hill 37°48′06″N 122°24′22″W / 37.8018°N 122.4062°W / 37.8018; -122.4062 at Kearny Street below Coit Tower and eventually resumes as a pedestrian stairway known as the Filbert Street Steps.^[1]

The Filbert Street Steps descend the east slope of Telegraph Hill along the line where Filbert Street would be if the hill weren't so steep. The steps run through a garden tended to and paid for by the residents of the "street", down to an eastern stub of Filbert Street and the walkway through the plaza to The Embarcadero. Many houses in this residential neighborhood are accessible only from the steps. As on paved streets, several fire hydrants and a solitary parking meter are located along the steps.

Filbert Street and 22nd Street in San Francisco have a maximum gradient of 31.5% (17.5°).^[2] The steepest hill on Filbert is the east half of the block between Hyde and Leavenworth; like 22nd St it is one-way down. The city map shows a descent of 65 feet, which based on a half-block being 206.25 horizontal feet makes the grade 31.5%, the official figure. The sidewalk-only section of Broderick Street (between Broadway and Vallejo, where the city map shows a climb of 96 feet in the 275-foot block) is steeper, just under 35% grade, and a block west the sidewalk-only block of Baker Street is a bit steeper than that. An unofficial survey of San Francisco streets declared the steepest street in San Francisco to be a 30-foot section of Bradford Street 37°44′14″N 122°24′35″W / 37.7373°N 122.4097°W / 37.7373; -122.4097, paved in 2010, with a 40% grade.^[3] The curvy Lombard Street started as a 27% grade.^[4] Three streets in Los Angeles are steeper—28th Street in San Pedro at 33.3%, Eldred Street in Highland Park at 33%, and Baxter Street in Silver Lake at 32%.^[5]

Canton Avenue in Pittsburgh is said to have a 37% grade; the length of that grade is unknown.

The feral parrots of Telegraph Hill, which were the subject of the 2005 documentary The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, may often be seen along the steps.

Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand, may be the steepest residential street in the world; it reportedly averages 1:3.41 (16.33° or 29.3 %) for 161 meters but its maximum is claimed to be 35% for an unknown distance.

References

External links

• Lombard Street Interactive Map
• Yelp review of the Filbert Steps

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Coordinates: 37°47′58″N 122°25′27″W / 37.79948°N 122.42425°W / 37.79948; -122.42425