Original photo by dpa picture alliance/ Alamy Stock Photo
If you suffer from claustrophobia, you might want to avoid the world’s narrowest street. Spreuerhofstrasse — located in Reutlingen, Germany — measures 1 foot, 0.2 inches at its tightest, and a meager 1 foot, 7.68 inches at its widest, at least when last evaluated for Guinness World Records in 2006. The 65-foot-long street is also limited vertically; those over 5 feet, 10 inches have to duck at the exit, and many who pass through are pelted with drips from overhead gutters. Despite those inconveniences, tourists flock to the record-holding passageway.
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It's a factU.S. cities have used numbered streets since the 17th century, and one ordinal — “Second” — is the most common name. That’s because many cities skip having a “First Street” and instead designate that road as “Main Street.”
Sandwiched between two buildings in Reutlingen’s oldest area, Spreuerhofstrasse was initially created not as a tourist attraction, but by a 300-year-old construction faux pas. In 1726, much of the city was destroyed by a fire, and residents rebuilding the area disregarded regulations for wider spaces between buildings that were meant to prevent future devastating blazes. For its first 100 years, Spreuerhofstrasse’s status as a street was debatable, but local lore suggests that in 1820 it received its official designation as a municipal street thanks to a slender town official who could easily squeeze down the alleyway.
However, no one is sure how long Spreuerhofstrasse will be able to hold on to its record. Within the last decade, area officials have become concerned about the adjacent buildings, as their walls slowly close in on the street’s space. If Spreuerhofstrasse becomes too narrow to pass — or widens, in the case of demolitions — the street would lose its world record, possibly to another competing lane, like England’s 14th-century Parliament Street, which measures just 25 inches wide.
Numbers Don't Lie
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Shibuya Crossing, the world’s busiest intersection for vehicles and pedestrians, is in ______.
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Shibuya Crossing, the world’s busiest intersection for vehicles and pedestrians, is in Japan.
Salt Lake City has the widest streets of any major U.S. city.
Not all cities follow the same guidelines when it comes to designing their roadways. Take, for example, Salt Lake City, where the streets in the city’s heart are a hefty 132 feet wide. That’s at least double the width of streets in cities such as San Francisco and New York. Salt Lake City’s massive streets were inspired by Mormon religious leader Brigham Young; when Mormon pioneers arrived in Utah and began constructing the city in 1847, Young declared the streets should be wide enough for drivers to turn their wagons around without “resorting to profanity.” However, wide streets aren’t the easiest (or safest) for pedestrians when it comes to crossing, which is why city officials are looking to use some of that extra space for bike lanes and additional sidewalks.
Nicole Garner Meeker is a writer and editor based in St. Louis. Her history, nature, and food stories have also appeared at Mental Floss and Better Report.
