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gradient, and the difficulties and high cost of constructing a wide thoroughfare on the steep hillside, have proved to be serious drawbacks to all possible plans for such a street.

Entrance to a thoroughfare tunnel, Stuttgart

In any thoroughfare scheme to the South Hills, it is reasonably clear that the end to be attained is the most direct access possible on easy gradients to the higher levels of the South Hills country. For it is on the upper levels, the hilltops and the upper slopes, that most of the present development has taken place; and there can be little doubt that in the future, even when building space is at a much higher premium than it is now, the overwhelming majority of the population will be found on the hills rather than in the narrow valleys.

Thoroughfare tunnel at Budapest

There are certain general tendencies which are observable, both in America and in Europe, in cities which have a large area of hill-top land separated by deep valleys. The hills are generally preferred for residential purposes, and the earliest roads or trails often follow the ridges, plunging down and climbing up again steeply to get from one ridge to another. The main roads in the second stage of development are apt to seek the valleys for the sake of good gradients, with a corresponding development of the most active urban growth in the valleys and on the lower slopes; the hilltop development being retarded by lack of transportation facilities. Nevertheless the continued

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Last modified on 22-Dec 1999
Design format: copyright 1997-1999 Bruce S. Cridlebaugh
Original document: Frederick Law Olmsted, 1910