THE 'WINDIEST' STREET IN THE 'SCO

LOMBARD STREET
A tourist attraction on to itself, Lombard Street was once just a steep hill. In the 1920's Lombard was actually worth less than its neighboring streets, because it was too steep to be able to drive a car up or down. At 27% grade, an insurance juggernaut, Carl Henry, proposed to construct a windy road to battle the steepness, thus making it accessible to vehicles. Since many houses on Lombard were destroyed after a fire (in the 20s), the road and houses were constructed in conjunction with each other.

Once finished, Lomard Street was a spectacle, hosting 350 cars per hour in its hay-day. Due to its popularity, tour buses are not allowed on the road anymore, and in the 1970's it was proposed multiple times to limit the road's use to only residents, and even by Diane Feinstein in 1980 when she was a sitting Supervisor in SF.

To locals, it is not the windiest street in the city, but it still draws the masses.

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