Lombard street the crookedest
street of the world
San Francisco is a city of Tourists ,an amazingly unique city in the world, not
so big but with so much to offer. The main city only 7x7 miles 49 sq. miles and
about 85o,ooo of population. it has so much , diversity attractions and places
to visit that one can enjoy it over and over again. With its sloppy curved roads
and streets going steeply up and down , it has an incredible look.With San
Francisco Bay on one side which has so many long bridges over it. These bridges
and especially the Golden Gate, San Francisco Bay bridge bridge are the marvels
of Engineering.
I have been there so many times and every time the trip was unique , lovely and
spectacular.
For the first time I visited with my son and almost every time with him, He went
up for the crooked street . That is the crookedest street in the whole world and
is a wonder. I was just holding my breath when he was driving down . With these
slopes , turns and twists your car and breaks should be in perfect condition.
Floral beds on the sides this is an amazingly beautiful street. These twists are
called eight tight hair pin twists and turns. Name of this street is Lombard
Street. It begins at Presidio Boulevard inside The Presidio and runs east
through the Cow Hollow neighborhood.
Lombard Street is best known for the one-way section on Russian Hill between
Hyde and Leavenworth Streets, in which the roadway has eight sharp turns (or
switchbacks) that have earned the street the distinction of being the crookedest
(most winding) street in the world. It is too steep for most vehicles. It is
also a serious hazard to pedestrians, who are accustomed to a more reasonable
4.86° incline because of wheel chair navigability concerns. The crooked section
of the street, which is about 1⁄4 mile (400 m) long, is reserved for one-way
traffic traveling east (downhill) and is paved with red bricks. The speed limit
in this section is 5 mph (8 km/h).
The irony that struck me for the last two years, is that I am going to San
Francisco , staying there for days . Touring the city round and round on hip on
hip off buses, on cable cars, cruise to Alcatraz but could not go up and down
the crooked street. Last year the day I planned to get there was a soaking rainy
, stormy day and this year I was not feeling well enough and it was too cold
that day. Therefore I missed you the crookedest street a lot.
San Francisco has the 2nd largest China Town in USA. The Green pagoda type gate
was brought from Taiwan .On top of this gate it is written in Chinese means "
All in the heaven are equal" It has Chinese stores , Chinese restaurants with
great cuisine and Chinese origin people all over. .
There was a commentary service on buses and few had live commentators telling
about all the streets , areas , famous personalities, movies shot here and some
of the details were quiet interesting and unknown to me. About the civic center
, it s gold plated dome and how the pigeons and birds are kept away to mess over
the doom was a great amazement. Over there they have installed a hawk and a
sound of hush when the birds try to sit over the dome. Many methods are tried to
protect the buildings from pigeon and birdies droppings. At that time , it
seemed like if I am doing a thesis, a research on San Francisco but now it is
fading out again from memory.
We stayed in nice Hotels close to Union Square courtesy to Asim's generous offer
. He would leave early in the morning to attend his training or tutorial
sessions and I was on my own. Walking up and down the street , I got accustomed
to the area and modes of transport.
It was an incredible experience to go to Fisherman wharf through Cable car and
then walked down the piers .
The cable care or trolley car is an old mean of transport . It was pulled
through horses on steep roads, the horses would fall down break their legs . The
driving force behind the San Francisco cable car system came from a man who
witnessed a horrible accident on a typically damp summer day in 1869. Andrew
Smith Hallidie saw the toll slippery grades could extract when a horse- drawn
streetcar slid backwards under its heavy load. The steep slope with wet
cobblestones and a heavily weighted vehicle combined to drag five horses to
their deaths. Although such a sight would stun anyone, Hallidie and his partners
had the know-how to do something about the problem.The next step bringing
Hallidie closer to his fate was moving his wire- rope manufacturing to San
Francisco. All that was now needed was seeing the accident for the idea to
become full blown-a cable car railway system to deal with San Francisco's
fearsome hills.These cars were started pulling through steel wire cables . Now
it is a historic transportation in SF, which every visitor would love to have
fun with.
On Fisherman wharf its a long walk piers after piers, stores , restaurants ,
bakeries, art galleries , beautiful sculptures , marinas and all the famous
tourist attraction spots . Ripley's believe it or not, madam Tussaud's wax
museum, Rain forest Cafe, sumptuous dungeon crabs to eat , sourdough clam
chowders, fried calamari and a lot . But the most famous is Pier 39 where there
are so many Seals and Sea lions landed and kept on wooden planks. In 1989 there
was an earth quack in San Francisco, after that a lot many Seals and Sea lions
gathered at that pier. The pier put these floating berths for them . Their
number increases and decreases . This time 3 -4 berths were occupied . It is a
living exhibit .Each time if I 'm there , I must visit this spot and love their
crawling up and down, making loud noises , rubbing over each other. Pier 39
itself has a lot many other attractions . This time when I was there it started
raining heavily . Just across the road to take a shelter went in to a wonderful
picture gallery. It had plenty to offer. An amazing spot with astonishing
photography, focusing and depicting the natural beauty of America on big
canvases and adequate, picturesque surroundings. Pier 33 is Alcatraz landings ,
From there we can take A cruise for Alcatraz. Alcatraz and history go hand in
hand. Once home to some of America's most notorious criminals, the
federal penitentiary that operated here from 1934 to 1963 brought a dark
mystique to the Rock. The presence of infamous inmates like Al "Scarface"
Capone, and the "Birdman" Robert Stroud helped to establish the island's
notoriety. To this day, Alcatraz is best known as one of the world's most
legendary prisons. It was an incredible trip to it with audio tour support .
Going through this I thought about Guantanamo bay which soon is going to be
another Alcatraz.
Numerous Millions of $ paintings are for sale in those picturesque art galleries
around Union Square from the world's renowned legendary artists.
All the American famous and up scales branded stores could be seen around Union
square. I had a promise with myself for no shopping at all. Yet I could not
resist going into the 8 floored Macy's , Swarovski and a few others.
Almost 80 % of SF got destroyed in 1906 earth quake after which a huge fire
erupted which destroyed most of the city. As a result of quake and fires 3000
people died. The city started resurrection from ashes in 1907.
So many Holly wood famous movies are made there on certain locations.SF is home
to many celebrities . In Pacific heights Danielle Steel owns a 30 million home,
Nichlas Cage and so many other celebrities. SF is home to many Hollywood actors
and actresses. Hopi Goldberg, Robin Williams even OJ Simpsons. The Movie Mrs.
Doubt fire was filmed in SF.
Walk on and around Golden Gate bridge, Golden gate park , palace of fine arts is
spectacular. Golden Gate park has so many marvelous exhibits that one could
spend a whole day there. Japanese tea garden, California Academy of sciences,
conservatory of flowers and a lot more.
In all this touring fanfare let us not forget of the SF homeless population.
Begging here and there , moving around with their belongings in carts but not
clinging like our Pakistani beggars. In Crime district which is called Tender
loin due to certain reasons every visitor is warned not to go there after sunset
because of the criminal activities.
San Francisco is home to a great deal of amazing and appetizing Pakistani
cuisine , satisfying our nostalgia and taste buds with back home BBQ, naans ,
nihari , maghaz masala , seekh kabab , Karahi and lot more. Shalimar, Haandi,
Karachi Kitchen and a great deal of others.
It was such a great delight to come e across a Pakistani young couple from
Lahore sitting next to me on our touring bus. Just figured it out when they
pointed to Halal Pizza. We had a good chat.
I'll never decline another offer to visit that astonishing city again....