Lombard
Street is famous for its steep climb in the one-way section, located on the
so-called Russian Hill and its extremely sharp bends, which number eight. These
bends are located on the section between Hyde Street and Leavenworth Street.
Tourists
arriving in San Francisco always visit Lombard Street. San Francisco residents
are proud to call this street the most crooked and steep street in the world.
This street
is one of the main attractions of the beautiful city. San Francisco residents
are said to have an expression they use when they want to say that someone has
truly amazing abilities. They say that such a person is able to even straighten
the bends on Lombard Street and turn it into a straight line. This expression
is difficult to understand if you have never been on this unique street that
winds like a real snake.
If you look
at Lombard Street, it looks like a serpentine, but not one that goes around the
mountain, but a serpentine that strangely descends from the mountain. The eight
famous bends on Lombard Street are almost at right angles to the hill, which is
at an angle of twenty-seven degrees.
The
explanation for choosing this strange shape of the street is quite simple. It
was necessary for purely practical reasons. In the 1920s, people living on
Lombard Street wanted to be like their neighbors on other streets and decided
to buy cars.
However,
the street descending the hill was too steep and the designers thought that the
direct descent would be too dangerous for both drivers and pedestrians trying
to cross the street while cars were driving on it. It was then decided to turn
Lombard Street into a serpentine, thus reducing the slope of the street to a
far more tolerable for drivers and pedestrians sixteen-degree angle.
Once the
street got its current look, properties that had previously been sold at much
lower prices because of the steep terrain were now significantly more expensive
because of the accessibility of the street.
Lombard
Street itself is famous not only for being curved and steep, but also for being
extremely beautiful. On both sides of the street rise colorful houses with lush
gardens, arranged trees and shrubs. The greenery combines very effectively with
the red pavement of the road and turns the street into a fairytale picture.
In fact,
Lombard Street is not the steepest street in the world, nor in San Francisco
itself, which is located on forty-eight hills. But the street is really unique
in terms of location and beautiful view, although it creates a lot of
inconvenience to cars and pedestrians.
The street
is so popular that it is used in various arts. In 1958, the famous director
Alfred Hitchcock chose Lombard Street for the shooting of part of his film
Vertigo. Elements of Lombard Street are included in the popular video game GTA,
and are painted in the smallest detail.
