Great Highway

Great Highway
	The Great Highway, San Francisco, California, looking south from Sutro Heights
Length	3.5 mi (5.6 km)
Location	San Francisco
North end	Point Lobos Avenue
South end	Skyline Boulevard

The Great Highway is a road in San Francisco that forms the city's western edge along the Pacific coast. It runs for approximately 3.5 miles (5.6 km) next to Ocean Beach. Its southern end is at Skyline Boulevard (State Route 35) near Lake Merced; it extends to Point Lobos Avenue and the Cliff House at its northern end.

The Great Highway also forms the western border of Golden Gate Park.

For approximately half its length, from Sloat Boulevard to Lincoln Way, the Great Highway is both an expressway and a parallel street. The expressway is built atop a raised berm, which overlays a pre-existing wall built to keep the adjacent area clear from frequent encroachment by sand dunes; however due to the strong winds and blowing sand, there are still several days when the Great Highway is closed to traffic each year. Also atop the berm is a gravel jogging path and a cement walking / bicycling path. The parallel street, also named 'Great Highway', is immediately adjacent below and to the east of the expressway, with buildings on its east side. The only access to the upper-level highway is at each end. There are crosswalks with traffic lights along this section to allow pedestrians to reach the beach.

The Dutch Windmill is situated in the north western corner of the park near the intersection of Fulton Street and the Great Highway, and the Murphy Windmill sits in the south western corner near Lincoln Way; both were built to pump water into Golden Gate Park. The N Judah, a San Francisco Municipal Railway streetcar line, ends at Great Highway and Judah, while the L Taraval, another streetcar line, ends two blocks from Great Highway at Wawona and 46th Avenue.

Streets in San Francisco
Numbered streets	Third Street 19th Avenue 22nd Street 49-Mile Scenic Drive
North–south streets	Castro Street Fillmore Street Folsom Street Grant Avenue Great Highway Hyde Street Junipero Serra Boulevard Kearny Street Mission Street Montgomery Street Octavia Boulevard Park Presidio Boulevard Polk Street Powell Street Skyline Boulevard Rescue Row Stockton Street Stanyan Street Van Ness Avenue Vermont Street
East–west streets	Broadway California Street Cesar Chavez Street Commercial Street Filbert Street Geary Boulevard Haight Street Jackson Street Lincoln Way Lombard Street Union Street
Diagonal streets	Alemany Boulevard The Embarcadero Howard Street Market Street Columbus Avenue New Montgomery Street
Alleyways	Balmy Alley Belden Place Clarion Alley Jack Kerouac Alley Macondray Lane Maiden Lane Ross Alley
Routes	SR 1 SR 35 SR 82 US 101 SR 480 / Embarcadero Freeway (demolished)
San Francisco place names etymologies

Great Highway

See also