Instant Cities: San Francisco

San Francisco › Places and landmarks

Lombard Street

The block of Lombard Street on Russian Hill with eight hairpin bends between flower beds, west of the game’s map.

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Photo: Benoît Prieur, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Between Hyde and Leavenworth Street, Lombard Street runs down the side of Russian Hill in eight tight bends, between hedges and flower beds. The hill there is too steep for a straight street, so in 1922 the bends were built to make it safe for cars.

Cars may go down it only, at walking pace, and people queue at the top to drive it. It is often called the crookedest street in the world, though Vermont Street, in the south of the city, has more bends.

It lies about a kilometre west of Washington Square, just outside the game’s map. In the game the city is flat, so its bends would not have a hill to climb. Ride through San Francisco in 3D ›

More in San Francisco

Transamerica PyramidThe white pyramid of the Financial District, 260 metres tall, the sign of San Francisco’s skyline since 1972. Ferry BuildingThe ferry terminal at the foot of Market Street, with its clock tower after the Giralda of Seville, now a food hall. Coit TowerThe slim concrete tower on top of Telegraph Hill, built in 1933 with the money of Lillie Hitchcock Coit. Dragon GateThe gate into Chinatown on Grant Avenue at Bush Street, with green tiled roofs, dragons and two stone lions. ChinatownThe oldest Chinatown in North America, along Grant Avenue and Stockton Street, with lanterns over the street. Union SquareThe square of the big shops and hotels, named after the rallies for the Union before the Civil War. Cable carsThe last cable cars in the world still running in city streets, pulled up the hills by a cable under the road. Washington SquareThe green heart of North Beach, the Italian quarter, before the white church of Saints Peter and Paul. City LightsThe bookshop of the Beat poets on Columbus Avenue, which published Allen Ginsberg’s Howl in 1956. Golden Gate BridgeThe orange suspension bridge across the mouth of the bay, about five kilometres west of the game’s map. AlcatrazThe rocky island in the bay, a federal prison from 1934 to 1963, built so that no one could swim away. Sourdough breadThe sour, chewy bread of San Francisco, baked since the Gold Rush from a living dough.