Ortega Steps

The Ortega Steps reach eighty-five feet in height, climbing a steep incline between fifteenth Avenue and fourteenth Avenue in the Golden Gate Heights neighborhood. Built around nineteen twenty-seven, they date to the era when the city graded these hills to prepare the area for residential development. While many other stairways in the city have gained fame for elaborate tile work and community art projects, the Ortega Steps remain a more rugged, utilitarian passage through the rocky, chert-filled landscape that defines this part of the city.