Snake Alley, Burlington, Iowa

The crookedest road in the United States isn’t Lombard Street in San Francisco, it’s Snake Alley in Burlington, Iowa. Here’s the story.

In 1894 three German immigrants in Burlington, Iowa devised a plan to connect the downtown section of Burlington with the neighborhoods just north of town. Charles Starker, an architect and landscape engineer; William Steyh, the city engineer; and George Kriechbaum, a paving contractor came up with a plan to build this roadway on a very steep hillside between Washington & Columbia Streets.

This extremely curvy road was completed in 1898. The alley is composed of limestone and blueclay bricks which were laid at an angle to allow horses better footing as they descended. The constantly changing slant from one curve to the next necessitated a complicated construction technique to keep the high grade to the outside. Snake Alley consists of five half-curves and two quarter-curves over a distance of 275 feet from Washington Street to Columbia.

This is reported to be the crookedest street in the world. The turns on Snake Alley are sharper than San Francisco’s famous Lombard Street, giving it a total of 1100° of turning from end to end, where Lombard Street’s straighter curves total only 1000°.

If you are in the Burlington, Iowa area, I highly recommend you check this out!

GPS Location: 40º48’43.2″N 91º06’20.5″W