Lombard Street
Eight hairpin turns cut into a 27% hillside — the 1922 engineering fix for a grade too steep to drive straight.
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Property owner Carl Henry proposed the redesign in 1922 to make Russian Hill's brutally steep grade passable. The result is a one-way, red-brick switchback between Hyde and Leavenworth streets that draws up to 17,000 people on peak summer days. Walking it costs nothing; driving it may soon require a reservation and fee.
What to look for
- Red brick paving along the full 600-foot crooked block
- The 5 mph speed sign posted at the top of the descent
- Powell-Hyde cable car stop at the Hyde Street summit
Reach the top via the Powell-Hyde cable car (stops at Hyde Street); drivers queue up to 20 minutes at peak times, with backups stretching to Van Ness Avenue.
Lombard Street is one of 31 sights worth the detour in San Francisco, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the San Francisco pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in San Francisco
- Golden Gate BridgeOpened May 27, 1937 as simultaneously the world's longest and tallest suspension bridge — you can walk the 4,200-foot main span yourself.
- Alcatraz IslandFor 29 years, cold Bay tidal currents did what bars alone could not — make escape nearly impossible.
- Transamerica PyramidAn 853-foot pyramid that ruled San Francisco's skyline for 45 years — still on the Transamerica logo even though the company quietly moved its HQ to Baltimore.
- Golden Gate ParkSan Francisco turned three miles of bare shifting sand dunes into the country's third-busiest urban park — starting from scratch in 1870.
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)The West Coast's first museum devoted solely to 20th-century art, now stretched across 170,000 square feet after a 2016 expansion that nearly sextupled public space.
- Alcatraz Federal PenitentiaryA 9-by-5-foot cell surrounded by cold bay currents — the federal government once staked its reputation on the claim that no one could leave.