99 Steps

The 99 Steps is a stairway cut from ballast brick that links the lower waterfront shopping area of Charlotte Amalie with the hillside residential streets above. It is one of several such stairways in the city — the Danes and later settlers built them throughout the 18th and 19th centuries to navigate the steep terrain — but the 99 Steps is the most famous and the most photographed.

The climb is genuinely steep, particularly in the midday heat. But it connects two quite different parts of the city: below, the tourist infrastructure of the historic district; above, a quieter residential neighbourhood of painted wooden houses with sea views. At the top, the Blackbeard's Castle tower is a few minutes' walk. The Government House is nearby, a yellow and white classical building that has served as the official residence since Danish colonial times.

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The "99 Steps" actually has 103 steps — the name comes from a colonial-era count that was evidently off. The stairway was built in the mid-1700s using brick brought as ballast in Danish and English merchant ships, which traded goods for cargo and needed to shed weight before loading. The ballast brick of St. Thomas is thus made of the same material as the ballast brick of many European port towns — carried there and dumped indiscriminately.

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