Filbert Street (San Francisco)

thumb|Looking up the steps

Filbert Street in San Francisco, California starts at Lyon Street on the east edge of The Presidio and runs east, intersecting thoroughfares Van Ness Avenue and Columbus Avenue. On Telegraph Hill it ends at Kearny Street below Coit Tower and eventually resumes as a pedestrian stairway known as the Filbert Street Steps., Google Maps.

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 hydrants and a solitary parking meter are located along the steps.

Filbert Street and 22nd Street in San Francisco are two of the steepest navigable streets in the Western Hemisphere, 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...
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