Feeling gravity's pull on L.A.'s steepest streets

The iconic image of nighttime Los Angeles shows the city's downtown skyscrapers looming over a grid of streetlights that appear to stretch to the horizon in all directions. But this visual metaphor for America's City of the Future belies the fact that L.A. encompasses many notoriously hilly neighborhoods. After all, the iconic image was likely snapped from some elevated spot that offers a dynamite view, such as the Hollywood Hills.

East of Hollywood are found several L.A. neighborhoods—Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Angelino Heights, Mount Washington, and Highland Park—not as well known to the Los Angeles visitor, but each with its own character due mainly to its particular hilliness. Among some of these hills are found L.A.'s steepest streets, and a few of those are as steep as, or steeper than, any of the famously inclined thoroughfares of San Francisco. In fact, L.A.'s steepest street, Eldred Street, in the Mount Washington neighborhood, is documented at present to be the second steepest street in the entire U.S. Only Canton Avenue in Pittsburgh, PA, is known to be steeper.

I was aware that these unusually steep L.A. streets existed after reading Bob Pool's 2003 article in the Los Angeles Times ("Getting the Slant on L.A.'s Steepest Street"). But recently I had the opportunity to investigate a few of these anomalies of elevation in person. What I found should make your visit to these neighborhoods a little more, shall I say, bracing, than Pool's article suggests.

Bus stuck on Baxter Street dropoff (Photo credit: Ingrid Peterson)

Fargo and Baxter streets

L.A.'s most well-known steep street, but not its steepest, is Fargo Street in the Silver Lake neighborhood. Beginning at its intersection with Rockford Road, Fargo runs southeast away from Silver Lake Reservoir and crests two ridges. Its steepest section, a 32% grade, rises between Alessandro and N. Alvarado streets. Here the Los Angeles Wheelmen cycling club puts on its annual Fargo Street Climb. Each participant's leg up the hill is timed, and all the action is captured on video. By "action" I mean each cyclist's slow, serpentine creep up the pavement along with the occasional tumble to the curb due to the rider's exhaustion.

Fargo Street's steepest incline is equaled by sections of two adjacent and parallel streets, Ewing and Baxter. However, among these three sisters of steepness, Baxter Street offers the most thrills to the motorist because it traverses three consecutive ridges. This video gives you a sense of what's in store if you decide, with the appropriate caution, to use Baxter Street as your own slow-motion roller coaster ride.

View of Eldred Street from N. Avenue 50

Of course, it's not only the automobile motorist who does the white-knuckle thing when negotiating Baxter Street. Imagine the fright experienced by the driver of this bus (in photo) who decided one afternoon to "take on" this particularly precipitous Baxter Street dropoff.

Eldred Street

In contrast to the g-forces you can meet and greet at Baxter Street's crests, a truly grounded experience awaits you at the lesser known Eldred Street, L.A.'s steepest with a 33% grade. Eldred makes its way from N. Avenue 50 up the east side of Mount Washington, a large solitary hill whose summit offers remarkable views of downtown L.A. to the southwest.

As you turn onto Eldred Street, what you see ahead (in photo) is less a street and more a ski jump without the white stuff. And because Eldred is a dead-end street, you're more likely to experience its unique incline in a very direct and personal way, on foot.

Uphill from its intersection with Avenue 48, Eldred Street's last block is its steepest section. Here, perched alongside the pavement you'll see 11 homes that house a gaggle of unusually upright Angelinos, and I mean that literally. Your eyes and sense of balance struggle to cope with an extreme sensory experience, and the downward pull of gravity dominates all your movements. Ascending the street here is like facing a hurricane-force gale—if your awareness of posture lapses, you might start rolling down Eldred Street like so many water-cooler bottles freed by gravity from a delivery truck that once foolishly turned around at the high end of the street.

View from top of Eldred Street

As you keep climbing, you're surprised to see that the pavement's end isn't the end of Eldred Steet. Continuing up the slope are 196 wooden steps, including seven landings, that pass two more homes and finally deliver the grateful visitor to the next cross street, appropriately named Cross Avenue.

If it's not too late in the day, your reward for reaching the top of Eldred Street is a wonderful view east toward Mount Baldy and the San Gabriel Mountains. And knowing that you don't live on Eldred Street.

The map below shows how to reach Eldred Street (in the Mount Washington neighborhood) from Baxter Street (in the Silver Lake neighborhood). That is, take the Glendale Freeway (State Route 2) north to the Eagle Rock Boulevard exit, left on Eagle Rock Boulevard, right on El Paso Drive, right on Avenue 50, right on Eldred Street.

Sneak Preview: L.A.'s adjacent Mount Washington and Highland Park neighborhoods are surprisingly full of interesting sites for the curious traveler. Watch the LA Unique Travel Examiner page for my recommendations of what to see along the scenic and historic Arroyo Seco Parkway (also known as the Pasadena Freeway or State Route 110) between downtown L.A. and Pasadena.