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Filbert Street (San Francisco)
Encyclopedia
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
starts at Lyon Street 37.7966°N 122.447°W on the east edge of The Presidio
Presidio 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, crossing 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...
and Columbus Avenue. It ends on 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:...
37.8018°N 122.4062°W at Kearny Street
Kearny Street
Kearny Street in San Francisco, California runs north from Market Street to The Embarcadero, with a gap on Telegraph Hill. Toward its south end, it separates the Financial District from the Union Square and Chinatown districts. Further north, it passes over Telegraph Hill.-History:Kearny Street...
below 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...
and eventually resumes as a pedestrian stairway
Stairway
Stairway, staircase, stairwell, flight of stairs, or simply stairs are names for a construction designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps...
known as the Filbert Street Steps.
The Filbert Street Steps descend the east slope of Telegraph Hill along the line where Filbert St 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 St 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 hydrant
Fire hydrant
A fire hydrant , is an active fire protection measure, and a source of water provided in most urban, suburban and rural areas with municipal water service to enable firefighters to tap into the municipal water...
s and a solitary parking meter
Parking meter
A parking meter is a device used to collect money in exchange for the right to park a vehicle in a particular place for a limited amount of time. Parking meters can be used by municipalities as a tool for enforcing their integrated on-street parking policy, usually related to their traffic and...
are located along the steps.
Filbert Street and 22nd Street
22nd Street (San Francisco)
22nd Street in San Francisco, California is one of the steepest streets in the world. In the block from Vicksburg to Church Streets in the Noe Valley neighborhood it descends 79 feet along the south side for an average grade of just over 31%, about the same as the steepest block of Filbert Street...
in San Francisco are two of the steepest navigable streets in the Western Hemisphere
Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere or western hemisphere is mainly used as a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian and east of the Antimeridian , the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere.In this sense, the western hemisphere consists of the western portions...
, at a maximum gradient of 31.5% (17.5°). 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 St 37.7373°N 122.4097°W paved in 2010 with a 40% grade .
Baldwin Street
Baldwin Street, Dunedin
Baldwin Street in a suburban part of New Zealand's southern city of Dunedin, is considered the world's steepest residential street. It is located in the suburb of North East Valley, northeast of Dunedin's city centre....
in Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, is steeper, with a maximum gradient of 1:2.86 or 35%. Three streets in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
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%.
Canton Avenue
Canton Avenue
Canton Avenue, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Beechview neighborhood, is the steepest officially recorded public street in the United States....
in Pittsburgh is said to have a 37% grade; length of that grade is unknown.
The feral parrots of Telegraph Hill, which were the subject of a 2005 documentary The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill is a 2005 documentary film directed, produced, and edited by Judy Irving. It chronicles the relationship between Mark Bittner, an unemployed musician who is living rent-free in a cabin in Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, California, and a flock of feral parrots ...
, may often be seen along the steps.