Nevada City Warnings Or Dangers Tips by SteveOSF Top 5 Page for this destination

Unconventional Sidewalks

The streets surrounding downtown Nevada City have some very unconventional sidewalks. Due to elevation differences between the buildings on each side of the street, some of the sidewalks can have a severe drop-off to the street below. Sometimes stairs are needed to access the sidewalk and properties beyond.

I know of other cities where this occurs, but Nevada City seems to be fairly extreme in this regard. It does add to the character of the town, but people with disabilities may face some challenges.

Typically such streets occur when houses were built along the slope of a narrow existing street that was meant to accommodate travel by horses long before the days of wide modern streets. When conventional streets were eventually constructed, some houses were either far higher or lower than the final grade of the wider road. I suspect this was the case here.