A view of the street with the street level
A sign at the bottom of the street
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Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world
Sunday, July 20, 2008
A view of the street with the street level
A sign at the bottom of the street
94 Comments
Do -not- forget to put the handbrake on.
Actually, put the car into gear if you want to be sure.
Where I once lived, there was a street that looked steeper then this (Blossom St, Hudson MA, it didn't have sidewalks.
Dude I would give anything to bomb that on my longboard! What a rush that would be!
JT
www.FireMe.To/udi
where's the worlds longest slip n' slide when you need it? :P
I've seen steeper streets...
I know of severel streets steeper than this!
Yeah, this cannot be accurate. I went to college in a town that had a street noticably steeper than those photos.
NAME THEM!
Photos have a habit of being deceiving, I bet that's steeper then it looks.
hyde street in san francisco has a 21 degree grade...
some streets in san francisco are as steep as 31 degrees!
http://www.magazineusa.com/us/cityguide/show.aspx?state=ca&unit=sanfrancisco&doc=18&dsc=San_Francisco_Hills
I have seen it, it is steep and is regarded as the steepest. It came about because the planning was done in scotland and then overlaid onto the area making this street go up a steep incline, and there it is.
Canon Street in Pittsburgh, PA has a 37 degree slope.
Sarah, 31.5% grade is not equal to 31 degrees. It is equal to 17.5 degrees.
Steep Hill - aptly named - in Lincoln, UK, is much steeper than this. As other readers have pointed out, many streets in San Francisco are also steeper.
Steep Hill - aptly named - in Lincoln, UK, is much steeper than this. As other readers have pointed out, many streets in San Francisco are also steeper.
Pittsburgh has 37%...
Baldwin Street in New Zealand has an officially recorded grade of 35%.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_Ave
Canton Avenue in Pittsburg is 37% or 20.3 degrees.
We have streets this steep, if not STEEPER in Iowa. One of the ones downtown here has stairs instead of a sidewalk due to this. We get a lot of snow and ice in the winter, imagine driving on that when it's covered in ice and snow!
Yeah I was gonna say...I'm pretty sure there's a few roads in Pittsburgh that put that one to shame. E. Sycamore St. is notably nasty.
Are you kidding? Here in Mexico we can reach up to 34.9° in a regular street.
A couple of streets in Echo Park, a suburb of Los Angeles, are definitely steeper.
Yeah, the steepest street in america probabbly, not in the world
IDIOT
@ 23 - the street in the OA is not in the US but New Zealand...who is the idiot now?
.... because New Zealand is in America.
And you're calling them an idiot?
Cedar Rapids, Iowa has two streets with sections that are much steeper than the street in New Zealand.
Every street I've ever been on is steeper than this.
@25 - New Zealand is its own country
Island Drive, Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia (right behind my apartment) is 21 degrees
Rabble rabble rabble.
FFS people, read the Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_Street
"...the Guinness Book officially recognizes Baldwin Street as the world's steepest street at a 35% grade. Canton Avenue, in the Pittsburgh neighbourhood of Beechview, may be steeper; it is officially measured to be a 37% grade."
How competitive are people with the steepness of streets? wow!
I am an American and I want you to know that we have the steepest and longest streets in the world. The street I live on is actually so steep that everything is upside down!
Yea for us Americans, we can never be outdone!
I am remarkably impressed by this street however Pittsburgh, pa defiantly has some streets that boarder the steepness of sane logic.
i lived on 22nd street (cross street Church) in san francisco and i think that was steeper
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=22nd+street+94114&ie=UTF8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ll=37.755293,-122.428124&spn=0.000862,0.001589&t=h&z=20&layer=c&cbll=37.754861,-122.428185&panoid=Dg-M59zS9tHTp4OU68piyw&cbp=2,329.68868503826747,,0,5
choose street view
@28 I think you are mistaken. Zealand is its own country, but New Zealand is an American state, much like New Mexico, New York, or New England.
I got this list on Google.
The Steepest Streets in San Francisco:
1. Filbert between Leavenworth and Hyde (31.5% grade)
2. 22nd Street between Church and Vicksburg (31.5% grade)
3. Jones between Union and Filbert (29% grade)
4. Duboce between Buena Vista and Alpine (27.9% grade)
5. Jones between Green and Union (26% grade)
6. Webster between Vallejo and Broadway 26% grade)
7. Duboce between Alpine and Divisadero (25% grade)
8. Jones between Pine and California (24.8 grade)
9. Fillmore between Vallejo and Broadway (24% grade)
may not be the steepest of the steep ...
still ... pretty impressive ...
@37 You're kidding, right? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand
Also, New England's not a state. Two swings; two misses.
lol, as a New Zealander this is very funny.
@41 You mean American*
(kidding) :P
I visited New Zealand once. Absolutely fantastic trip. One of those People to People student programs.
And yes, I needed a passport. *facepalm*
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=22nd+street+94114&ie=UTF8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ll=37.755293,-122.428124&spn=0.000862,0.001589&t=h&z=20&layer=c&cbll=37.754861,-122.428185&panoid=Dg-M59zS9tHTp4OU68piyw&cbp=2,329.68868503826747,,0,5
there is the google street view of the infamous canton ave. in pittsburgh
these kids went down baldwin street in a wheelie bin. they hit a car and died. it was on the news here.
I think the real test of steepness is not grade, but the willingness of people driving high-center-of-gravity vehicles to park at right angles on the street.
On the aforementioned block of 22nd Street in San Francisco (btw Church and Vicksburg), there are always vans parked at 90 degrees. (They look as if you could topple them with with a nudge, but they're there, and you never hear about any of them tumbling downward.) So that block must not really be "steep."
(It does scare the crap out of visitors when I drive them down it though...)
I wouldn't wanna live in the house at the bottom of that hill. It seems well-positioned to "catch" whatever might come down it brakeless.
@44: That's why the Darwin Awards were invented.
I love Pittsburgh...can't wait to go home. A famous photographer (can't remember name) once said he loved taking photos of the women of Pittsburgh because they had the most beautiful legs from walking all those hills. Obviously this was from a long time ago, before everyone became couch potatoes....In Pittsburgh you learn to turn the front wheels of vehicles into the sidewalk when parking just in case the brakes fail so it doesn't roll down the street!
If you think this is steep, you have to visit Greece.
I can take you to a dozen such streets within Athens
alone.
Cheers
sakisbou@uahoo.com
a few years ago these guys went down it in rubbish bins, they died lul
obviously drunk >.>
They should build a futuristic tram on this thing seen it in one of my dreams now i know where its located i think could be wrong who knows
It's a 10 minute walk from where I live!
Last week they rolled 30,000 Jaffas (chocolates) down as part of the Cadbury Chocolate Carnival. Quite a sight.
http://www.chocolatecarnival.co.nz/Home/CadburyJaffaRace/tabid/815/language/en-US/Default.aspx
Hey, leave the poor kiwi's alone. Don't know why it is such a badge of honour that you have councils that design a suburb that has roads like that.
PS New Zealand isn't a country, it's the 7th and 8th state of Australia but we don't talk about it.
If you want to see several streets that are scary steep try Bluefield, WV .
In Afghanistan they have a vertical street that everyone climbs to get to their caves.
My street can beat up your street.
Believe it or not,there's a Baldwin St in Baltimore,Md 21211 that may be steeper,although it's a bit shorter than this one
@ 57
I don't believe it.
gañanes se ve que no habeis ido a mi pueblo..
a la paz de Dios
Hi
Yeah well my street is 90 degree so you can all STFU.
Sounds like a case for Encyclopedia Brown...
oohh!! my god!!
Not only is my street steeper than this one, it also has a bigger penis.
And that penis is also very steep.
who cares about america anyways?
En Fuencaliente y en la Venta de Azuel (Ciudad Real, España) las he visto yo peores...
NOOOOOOOOO, you must visit TOLEDO (Spain). A lot of streets are steeper than this one.
En Toledo hay calles en el casco histórico más empinadas que ésta. Una concretamente que va desde la plaza de San Justo hasta el Corralillo de San Miguel creo que es el tramo mas empinado que he visto en mi vida, es literalmente un muro, incluso hay agarraderas a los lados para que la gente pueda "escalar" por ella.
Un saludo!!!
I'm from Dunedin!
The reason the street doesn't look that steep in the pictures is because there are several sections of differing gradient. The steepest section is right near the top.
Also, to number 25 - NZ is in America?! That's some nice ignorance you got there pal
en barcelona tenemos otra que no hay que
envidiar
@25 You are thinking of New ENGLAND which is what they call the North Eastern states. New ZEALAND is way the hell away from here. It closer to Austrailia than America
translated in dutch : zee=sea land=coutry, point: a lot of places possible on the world grtz
siz bunlara yokuşmu diyonuz beee
sadıç sen hiç gölpazarına geldinmi aq gel bide ordaki bayırları gör
It's too steep. Please be very very careful while driving there.
did i hear someone say "get your skateboard" haha.
shit, my town is steeper by like 60%. fuck everyone who gives a shit about who has seen steeper. Shut the "eff" up.
there is a street MUCH steeper than this in Trinidad and Tobago-Sk8tt
My street has a steepness of 180 degrees. Due to this we're forced to build our houses upside down.
Seriously, you Americans are freakishly competitive. Good luck believing you're the best at everything.
Lets check -
Geography: BupBOW. New Zealand it it's own country, not one of your "states".
Weirdo's.
Oh another US bashing - did you know Australia has cattle stations bigger than Texas?
There is a whole world out there outside of USA. It's pretty damn good, too.
People often think of San Francisco for its steep streets, but not many people realize that the steepest streets in Los Angeles are steeper than any in San Francisco. Edlred Street has a 33 degree grade. There is a street in San Pedro that's even slightly steeper. The steepest street in San Francisco is 31 degrees. Of course Pittsburgh's steepest beats them all. I wonder what the grade of this street in New Zealand is?
very entertaining topic here - LOL
Gathering the facts presented and independantly researched, there are two streets that stand out as the "steepest":
- Baldwin Street (in New Zealand mentioned in the article) and
- Canton Avenue (in Pittsburgh mentioned in this blog).
Canton Avenue is indeed steeper at a gradient of 37 percent HOWEVER is hardly 50 meters in length.
Baldwin Avenue has a 31 percent gradient and is 350 METERS IN LENGTH!!!
Wow this is crazy.
wow! i haven't ever seen. awesome.
YOU'RE ALL WRONG MY STREET HAS A 45 DEGREE ANGLE
I canot imagine if you leave thekids pram unattended!!!
The streets in China are upside down from where I am in the USA. Now, that is steeep.
There are streets all over the World that are as steep as Baldwin and that lame excuse Canton (at 50 meters in length it's more like a driveway than a road !).
Has anyone heard of the Tour De France ? Well stage 16 of the 2008 TDF (col-du-grand-saint-bernard) is a 40km hell ride reaching a peak of 2400 meters (twice)
See link:
http://www.cycling-challenge.com/col-du-grand-saint-bernard/
ya'all dont kno da meanin of the word steep...
no one will read this, but
(1) there are 2 streets in Dunedin that are steeper than the steepest street in San Fransisco. Baldwin street is one of them
(2) the Guiness book of records moved the 'award' for the steepest street from San Fransisco to Dunedin's baldin street
(3) if you think that New Zealand is in the USA then you are one dumb motherfucker.
Canton Ave is The World's Steepest Street. There is no length requirement. I am going to get Guiness to correct this error.
It would have been very entertaining to have seen Laurel and Hardy try to get a heavy piano up Baldwin Street.
Around Long Beach, California the steepest road I believe is Hill Street
( also called Shell Hill ) with a 22% grade. Though not as steep as Baldwin Street, it shares the same hill name of "Signal Hill". There is a brief second before going over the top where you do not see the bottom. Today there are houses built around it, and a green grass strip placed down the middle divider of the street.
I could be wrong here but im pretty sure none of you foreigners understand the concept of sarcasm cause new zealand is clearly NOT a state, its a territory of America