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A step street is a thoroughfare fitted with steps for pedestrian traffic rather than paved or tracked for motor vehicles. It is a practical way of providing access up and down a slope that is too steep for automobiles. Step streets consist of a staircase of stone or concrete steps, often with a handrail on posts down the center, and sometimes lined with trees. Examples can be found in hilly urban areas. Step streets fell out of popularity with urban designers as the use of the automobile increased in cities. In the early 2010s, efforts were made to restore some of these open-air staircases in
A step street is a thoroughfare fitted with steps for pedestrian traffic rather than paved or tracked for motor vehicles. It is a practical way of providing access up and down a slope that is too steep for automobiles. Step streets consist of a staircase of stone or concrete steps, often with a handrail on posts down the center, and sometimes lined with trees. Examples can be found in hilly urban areas. Step streets fell out of popularity with urban designers as the use of the automobile increased in cities. In the early 2010s, efforts were made to restore some of these open-air staircases in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
Examples
* In New York City, there are 102 step streets across the city'sfive boroughs
5 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
5, five or number 5 may also refer to:
* AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era
* 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era
Literature
* ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram
* ''5'' (comics), an awa ...
. Of these, the majority (64) are in the Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...
. Others are scattered through hilly areas of Upper Manhattan
Upper Manhattan is the most northern region of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary has been variously defined, but some of the most common usages are 96th Street, the northern boundary of Central Park (110th Street), ...
, Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
, Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, and Staten Island
Staten Island ( ) is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey b ...
. Some of the more notable step streets in New York City include Bushman Steps
Coogan's Bluff is a promontory near the western shore of the Harlem River in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. Its boundaries extend approximately from 155th Street and the Macombs Dam Bridge viaduct to ...
, which led to the Polo Grounds
The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 through 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built fo ...
stadium in Upper Manhattan, as well as the Joker Stairs
The "Joker Stairs" is the colloquial name for a step street connecting Shakespeare and Anderson avenues at West 167th Street in Highbridge in the Bronx, New York City. Located near the 167th Street station on the New York City Subway's , the s ...
in the Bronx, one of the filming locations for the 2019 movie '' Joker''.
* The city of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
maintains over 700 sets of steps, some of which are classified as streets.
* Rue Foyatier in Montmartre
Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...
, Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
, is said to be the most photographed staircase in Paris, with over 250 steps.
* There are also several step streets in San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
, California. One of these is the Lyon Street Steps between Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
and Green Street in Pacific Heights, with 332 steps. Another, the Filbert Street
Filbert Street was a football stadium in Leicester, England, which served as the home of Leicester City F.C. from 1891 until 2002. Although officially titled the City Business Stadium in the early 1990s, it remained known almost exclusively by ...
Steps, descend the east slope of Telegraph Hill and run through the Grace Marchant Garden, tended by the residents who live along these steps. In total, there are 600 public stairs in San Francisco, not all of which are step streets.
*The town of Gurabo, Puerto Rico
Gurabo () is a town and municipality in eastern Puerto Rico. It is located in the central eastern region, north of San Lorenzo; south of Trujillo Alto; east of Caguas; and west of Carolina and Juncos. Gurabo is spread over 9 barrios and Gurab ...
is popularly known as ''Pueblo de las Escaleras'' ("town of the stairs") due to the number of step streets in the district of El Cerro near the center of town.
*In Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
, Rue Saint-Christophe contains both stairs and a small slide, and is part of Parc Simonne-Monet-Chartrand.
See also
*Perron (staircase)
In architecture, a perron generally refers to an external stairway to a building. Curl notes three more-specific usages: the platform-landing reached by symmetrical flights of steps leading to the '' piano nobile'' of a building; the steps themse ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Step street Types of streets