From Liguria, walk east on Filbert. The first block is a regular sidewalk climb; above Grant, Filbert steepens into one of the sharpest grades in the city before reaching Telegraph Hill Boulevard, which curls up to the tower. The 39 Coit bus runs up from Washington Square if you’d rather ride.
Coit Tower stands at the top of Telegraph Hill, a 210-foot fluted concrete column finished in 1933. It was funded by a bequest from Lillie Hitchcock Coit, a wealthy eccentric who had championed the city’s volunteer firefighters as a girl. Despite the popular story, it was not designed to resemble a fire hose nozzle.
Inside the base are murals painted in 1934 by 26 artists under a New Deal program, showing California labor and daily life in a social-realist style that drew controversy at the time for its politics. An elevator runs to the observation deck, which gives a 360-degree view of the city and the Bay. The murals are free to view; the elevator charges admission.
To descend, take the wooden Filbert Street Steps down the east side of the hill, toward the Embarcadero. They drop through the Grace Marchant Garden past cottages with no street access, and the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill are often loud in the trees. This is a different stairway from the one you climbed: the garden steps only exist on the bay side.
