Stairways of San Francisco Featured Stairways A SisterBetty.org Feature
Searching out the stairways of San Francisco might seem like an odd thing to do.  After all, most of the stairways are cement gradations leading from one street to another.  Setting out to find San Francisco’s stairways will take you to parts of the city you can’t see from a bus seat while the guide cackles through speakers overhead.  Stairways give reason to explore the parts of the city hidden behind the stage dressing provided to the world.  Stairways point to the wondrous bits of a bewitching city we might otherwise miss as we rush by. 

I’ve been told there are 300 stairways in San Francisco.  My goal is to visit them all and catalog them here, however long that may take.  I hope you’ll use this as a guide to explore on your own.  If you know of a hidden stairway I’ve yet to visit, have a story or a comment to share, please contact me.

The Myth

Urban myth tells that San Francisco’s streets were laid out on paper by a bureaucrat in Washington, D.C., who had never been to San Francisco. Believing San Francisco to be as flat as the nation’s capitol, the urban planner simply dropped a grid onto the map, unaware of the forty tall hills that fill the peninsula. The result was a city filled with dramatically steep streets.  While the story isn’t true, it provides explanation for the city’s incredibly straight and steep streets and illustrates our long standing dislike for most of those living near the Potomac.

The Truth

In truth, Jasper O’Farrell, the civil engineer who laid forth most of San Francisco’s modern city plan, wanted curved streets which conformed to the terrain.  Real estate developers, however, had other plans.  They wanted straight streets which made lots easier to subdivide and sell.  Thus, San Francisco ended up with numerous incredibly steep streets and uninterrupted history of greedy landlords.

Some of San Francisco’s streets were steep enough that horse-drawn carriages couldn’t make it up the inclines.  Cables connected to stream powered engines were required.  In other locations, the proposed streets were so exceptionally steep, the hills so impassible, that constructing roads was impossible.  Here, the city simply built stairways.  Over 300 of these stairways exist throughout the city, providing access and shortcuts to areas unreachable by any other means.  Aside from a handful of famous stairways such as those leading to Coit Tower, many of the stairways are quiet places, used only by locals and known to a handful of people.


The Iron Street Stairs are some of San Francisco's last wooden stairways.  Rotting and worn, the stairs climb Twin Peaks... [More]
Stairways of San Francisco is a featured section of SisterBetty.org. Explore more here.

Favorite Stairways

Filbert Steps
Greenwich Street
Iron Street Stairs
Saturn Street Stairs
Vallejo Street Stairway
Vulcan Steps
Iron Street Stairs
Vinton Street Stairs
Full List of Stairways in San Francisco
Click here for a full list of stairways or 
Click to sort By: Location - Length - Rating

Live Internet Camera
Road Trip 2003
Road Trip 2004
San Francisco Photographs
Trains
Railroad Graffiti
Add a Stairway
Have a favorite stairway? Know a hidden stairway Sister Betty has not yet found?  Click here to tell Sister Betty where it is.


Contact Sister Betty
©SisterBetty.org 
All rights reserved.
Scratchings Archive - Road Trips - Trains - Stairways of San Francisco - Photo Archive - Contact Sister Betty

  © SisterBetty.org. All rights reserved.