Baldwin Street

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Baldwin Street
Information board

The Baldwin Street is in the Guinness World Records made the steepest street in the world. It is located in the North East Valley, 3.5 km north of Dunedin , New Zealand . The maximum gradient of the almost 350 meter long road is 1: 2.86 (19.3 ° or approx. 35%). Over the decades, the street has become a well-known landmark in the city.

Filbert Street and 22nd Street in San Francisco follow in the ranking of the steepest streets in the world, both of which have an incline of 31.5% (17.5 °). The situation on the originally similarly steep Lombard Street , which is also in San Francisco, has been defused by serpentines . Other cities in the US and other parts of the world claim to have even steeper roads.

Due to the extreme incline, it was made of concrete instead of asphalt, as asphalt would melt on hot days and slide down the road.

In 2019, the Guinness Book of World Records declared the road Ffordd Pen Llech in Harlech ( Wales ) with 37.45% of maximum slope to the steepest street in the world. Since the measurement was contested, it was decided a few months later that the measurement would take place in the middle of the street. That was a 34.8% incline for Baldwin Street and 28.6% for Ffordd Pen Llech. The title is therefore back on Baldwin Street.

Competitions and record attempts

  • Every year in September there is a 750-meter race, the "Baldwin Street Gutbuster", in which this street has to be walked up and then down again. The record time of 1:56 minutes was set in 1994.
  • Since 2002 there has been a duck race- style charity event where 30,000 Jaffas (orange-flavored chocolate balls) purchased from local sponsors roll down the mountain. The sponsors of the winning balls receive prizes.
  • On January 14th, 2000, Bavarian Thomas Hugenschmidt set a new speed record of 117.3 km / h on his bike on this downhill road.
  • In 2001, a 19-year-old student died while trying to drive down the street in a two-person garbage can . The garbage can collided with a parked trailer, causing immediate fatal injuries to the student.

Web links

Commons : Baldwin Street  album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bettina Seipp: Geography: The steepest road in the world runs through New Zealand . April 26, 2015 ( welt.de [accessed on March 28, 2019]).
  2. ^ Steepest road in the world in Wales. In: orf.at . July 16, 2019, accessed July 16, 2019.
  3. ↑ Steven Morris: Welsh street loses world's steepest title after New Zealand rival's appeal. In: theguardian.com. April 8, 2020, accessed May 22, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Patrick Barkham, Dustbin death , The Guardian , March 2, 2001 (English)

Coordinates: 45 ° 50 ′ 58.2 ″  S , 170 ° 32 ′ 4.6 ″  O