Obscure geography trivia time: where would you find the steepest street in the world?

You might guess San Francisco. If you’re a Guinness Book of Records-reading smart alec, you might say New Zealand. As it turns out, you’d be wrong – probably. In fact, nobody seems quite sure which is the world’s steepest, and then there’s the problem of what exactly counts as a street anyway.

But we’ve looked into it, got out protractors out, and can now reveal the not-quite-scientifically-verified Google Sightseeing Top Six World’s Steepest Streets! And happily, the intrepid Street View car has struggled its way up (or down) all of them. Here they are, in reverse order:

6) Dornbush Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

In the East Hills area of the city, this quiet-looking residential street has been surveyed at a 31.98% grade – that’s a 17.7° slope. The Street View car missed out one section of the steepest part, which is one-way in the downhill direction. Check out the heavy-duty concrete staircase.

5) Maria Avenue, Spring Valley, California

Here’s a prime example of the “We’ve got a grid system and we’re damn well going to stick to it” school of city planning. Google’s Terrain view shows how the north-south street pattern has been laid out with no regard whatsoever to the steep contours – in fact you have to wonder whether the planners had ever even visited the site!

Maria Avenue marches straight up the southern slope of Dictionary Hill, attaining a surveyed grade of 32% (17.7°) just north of Chestnut Street. This section of road seems to be paved with concrete, and is cut off from the section above: Street View leaps straight across the gap, missing out this part of the road. The next block to the east would have been even steeper – Buena Vista Avenue is shown on the street map, but the builders understandably admitted defeat there.

4) Baxter Street and Fargo Street, Los Angeles, California

We’ll call this one a tie. These two streets are right next to one another in the Silver Lake district of LA, and both have been measured at 32%, but they get the nod over Maria Avenue on account of being altogether more exciting.

Baxter Street goes up and up and up… but then it goes down almost as steeply, giving the alarming impression that you’re about to drive off a cliff as you approach the summit.

Fargo Street is much shorter – only one block – but that’s plenty long enough for the cyclists who enter the annual Fargo Street Hill Climb. In 2008 one nutter rode up it 101 times in one day.

3) Eldred Street, Los Angeles, California

Just pipping Baxter and Fargo, with a 33% (18.3°) grade at its topmost end, LA’s steepest is in the Highland Park area. It rises 67m over only 400m, which presents some interesting challenges for its residents, according to an entertaining LA Times article.

2) Baldwin Street, Dunedin, New Zealand

Despite being listed in the Guinness Book of Records (and having that sign at the bottom), Baldwin Street doesn’t make the top slot. True, the top section attains an impressive 35% (19.3°) grade; true, it’s quite a slog walking up, even with the steps at the side¹; and true, sliding down it in a wheelie bin is a very bad idea; but it’s not the steepest. Unless anyone else knows better, the winner is…

1) Canton Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The signs at the top say “Do Not Enter”, and in slippery conditions you’d do well to heed them. Canton Avenue, a short cobbled street in Pittsburgh’s Beechview neighbourhood attains a whopping 37%, or 20.3°, gradient, making it the steepest public road in the United States – and, quite possibly, the world. This YouTube video shows what happens when you try and cycle up it, and this article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has more photos, giving an idea what it’s like to live there in winter. You can bet the residents of this house at the bottom of the hill are quite glad of that crash barrier out the front.

Honourable mentions

Here are a few other contenders that, for various reasons, didn’t quite “make the grade”…

West 28th Street, San Pedro, Los Angeles

Apparently this is officially the steepest LA street, at 33.3% (18.4°, just pipping Eldred), but looking at it on Street View, the steep portion is pathetically short. Next!

Ffordd Pen Llech, Harlech, Wales

This lane, said to be the steepest in Britain, plunges down the side of the steep hill topped by Harlech Castle. Sadly, Street View hasn’t reached rural north Wales yet, but there is high-resolution aerial imagery. The sign at the top claims it to be a 40% (21.8°) slope, but that seems dubious. And in any case, look at the sign just below the gradient warning: “Anaddas i fodur”. Unsuitable for motors. Disqualified on a technicality…

Waipio Valley Road, Hawaii

Now we’re talking: 45% gradient, or 24.2° – just look at those contour lines! Sadly, although this potential record-breaker is paved, it is restricted to 4WD vehicles – and in any case, it’s out in the wilds of the north of the Big Island, and with no houses on it you can hardly call this one a street. Still, it looks like quite a drive, judging by the pictures on this page.

Peering out the window of the little airtaxi that has brought you to The Rat’s Nest, or Rottnest Island, 18 km southwest off the coast of Australia, you’ll notice the island’s name spelled out in trees. This little island, only 15 km long and 4km wide, has been the site of an aboriginal prison, WWI & WWII internment camps, and today is an important local holiday destination, popular for its shipwreck bearing reefs and notable surf breaks.

The trees that spell out “Rottnest” were planted purposely to welcome visitors to the island, which was named for the native quokka, a marsupial that resembles a large rat and thrives on the island due to the lack of a significant predator.

There are no fresh water sources on the surface of the island so rainwater has always had to be collected instead. However in the 1970s, fresh water was discovered underground, and since 1995 the government has desalinated water from these salt lakes using reverse osmosis.

One of the most famous (or infamous) buildings on the island is the Rottnest Quod, an eight-sided structure that was used to imprison over 3,700 aboriginal men and boys between 1838 and 1931. Rottnest was used in this way to “calm” the mainland native population that were committing the terrible crime of digging up crops from land that used to belong to them.

Today the Quod is a source of contention as it was used as a budget hostel for most of the 20th century and has now been converted into high-priced accommodation for tourists. However, aboriginal activists say that the site should remain a historical heritage site, demonstrating the harsh treatment of the natives by the colonial government.

Other notable features of the island are a zero tolerance approach to “antisocial behaviour”, laws banning private ownership of land, cycling being the main form of transport, and an annual 18km swim from the mainland to the easternmost point on the island.

More info on Rottnest Island at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Simon Craigie.

In The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe, when the three Pevensie children (minus Edmund) arrived at Aslan’s camp, they were happening upon what we (of the other world) know as Elephant Rocks.

Looking from above, the boulders look like nothing more than a few pebbles to be picked up and stuffed in your pocket, but when looking straight on the boulders are just massive!

Named after the big, leathery mammals due to their shape and size, these naturally shaped limestone formations near Duntroon on the South Island of New Zealand were made world famous in the 2005 film, by Andrew Adamson.

Looking at these official production stills from the movie, you can clearly see the enormous size of the boulders.

The Streetview Squad did swing by the site when capturing images. However, it looks like a pretty foggy day as its difficult to make out the rock formations from the street.

The area is also a favorite of climbers, specifically known as a great place to do some bouldering. According to the The Crag, a rock climbing enthusiast’s social network, there have been at least 252 different routes mapped.

Update: Thanks to Ian Brodie for letting us know that the production stills from above are actually from Castle Rock. Check out Brodie’s website where he has first hand photography of the Narnia set!

Clipperton Island, one of the most remote land masses on earth, is an uninhabited coral atoll under French authority, located in the Eastern Pacific Ocean approximately 1,120 kilometres south west of Mexico.

The island was named for John Clipperton, an English pirate who visited the island briefly in the 18th century and may have used it to hide treasure… which so far has never been found!¹

12 kilometres in diameter, the ring-shaped island completely encloses a stagnant freshwater lagoon with many deep basins. One of these, known as “the bottomless hole,” contains an extremely high concentration of sulphuric acid, making Clipperton a less than desirable vacation destination.

Add to that a severe lack of fresh water and an abundance of poisonous land crabs – and Clipperton Island shapes up to be the perfect location for an evil super-villain’s island fortress of doom!

Though uninhabited today, at its peak around 1914 Clipperton was home to a group of 100 men, women and children, and was the site of a booming guano-mining² operation.

Only three years later, only 10 women and children remained – thanks to a lack of supplies and a homicidal lighthouse keeper. Since then the island has only been visited periodically by French military patrols and the occasional scientific expedition.

Even a company as all-powerful as Google occasionally needs a helping hand, as the driver of this Street View car in Australia discovered. Give him credit though: despite getting stuck in the mud, he kept his camera running to record the little drama that played out under the hot Outback sun…

Our man got into difficulties on the remote Bourke-Wilcannia road, in north west New South Wales. In the early days of Australian settlement, the town of Bourke came to represent the western edge of civilisation, and the expression “back o’Bourke” is still used to refer to the wilds of the Outback. It’s no surprise, then, that the road conditions can be far from ideal.

After battling bravely through the first flood, the Street View car finally gets bogged down in this patch of mud a few miles short of the small town of Tilpa¹.

Cursing his luck, our driver makes a heroic effort to free himself, spinning the wheels and sending mud flying into the air, but to no avail.

Luckily, help soon arrives, in the form of a vehicle that seems to be coping rather better with the conditions.

The driver of the 4×4² hops out to see what’s happening, even crouching down to have a look at the wheels.

Good job he remembered to bring the tow rope – our man is freed to film another day. Sadly, he switched off the camera soon after he was pulled free, so we can’t see what happened next. Let’s hope he at least bought his knight in shining armour a cold beer.

Thanks to Ken Arnold.