---
node: spot_san_francisco_lombard_street
type: spot
slug: lombard_street
destination: dest_san_francisco
title: "Lombard Street"
lead: "The one-block stretch of Lombard Street on Russian Hill has eight hairpin turns laid into a slope too steep to drive straight down. It was built that way in 1922 to make the 27-degree grade passable, not as an attraction."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_san_francisco_lombard_street.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LombardStreet.jpg"
image_author: "Gaurav1146 at English Wikipedia"
image_license: "Public domain"
---

## Overview

Cars descend one way at a walking pace and the hydrangeas in the beds between the turns are maintained by the residents, who have campaigned repeatedly for a booking system or a toll to reduce the two million visitors a year. It is not actually the crookedest street in the city — Vermont Street in Potrero Hill is tighter — but it is the one everyone means. The view down the hill to Coit Tower and the bay is the reason it photographs so well.

## Highlights

Walk it rather than drive: the queue of cars at the top can take half an hour and you see nothing from inside one. The stairs run down both sides. The Powell-Hyde cable car stops at the top, which is the easy way up the hill.