Roopa (Roobas)
Rail or rut. Here: railway. Interesting word: while ‘rut’ is the primary meaning, both literally and metaphorically, it is also closely paired with rööpa:rööbas, ‘rail’ as in trains or trams, and believed to originate from a sense of ‘sticking-out-i-ness’ as in ‘pile of stones or ice’, ‘edge of ice’, ‘frozen lump of snow’, evolving into ‘track or depression in the road’, with tramlines being the nice fit between raised and sunken. Street originated with Starcksche Straße (1875) after local surveyor Robert Starck who built the street on his land near Tehnika, switching into Raudtee aaru (prob. alt. spelling of Aru, dry, upland meadow), then various versions of increasingly Estonianised German for railway track: Schienenstraße (1907-1942), Shiini (1908), Schiini (1908-1921), Siini ( 1923) till the good ole Soviet regime decided on Tiivase A. (1959-1960), a one-time Bolshevik and member of the Tallinn Soviet.
Vesivärava (Vesivärav)
Watergate, named after the lock and sluice system controlling water to the harbour. Odd, at first glance, but not, apparently, à la coals to Newcastle: even harbour-masters wash their hands. The main historical source of water in Tallinn was the Härjapea river, starting at the N tip of lake Ülemiste reaching the sea somewhere N of Petrooleumi. Over time, pollution required cleaner sources, with water piped in from Pirita river. To supply Kadriorg, Peter I had the Kadriorg aka Peetri canal built, supplying the palace, park and fountains. By 1876, however, to ensure fresh water for shipping, a channel was built from the W end of running NW along what became first known as Schleusenstr (sluice, 1876) followed by its Rus. transliteration, Шлюзная (Shlyuznaya), Canal / Kanalstr (1882), through Wasserleitungsgasse (also 1882), Wasserleitungsstr (1893), and Neue Wasserleitungsstraße (1907) and earning its first Estonian name Uus-Veerenni from 1908-10 and its current one in 1923. Over time, the entire watercourse became covered over. All that remains is a solitary drinking-water fountain near Mäekalda.
Tormi (Torm)
Storm. Close enough to the sea to make sense!
Reidi (Reid)
Roadstead or roads (usu. pl.), where the term does not designate a road, but a sheltered area of sea outside a harbour where ships can lie at anchor in relative safety, similar to a bay or gulf, but deeper and with a narrower mouth open to the sea. Some sources give Eng.‘road’ as the length of chain holding the anchor. The term seems first to have meant a safe place to prepare ships, coming from MLG rēde, reiide, rēt, rīde, etc., or Old Dutch rede(?), derived from Proto-Germanic *raid- ‘ready’, with similar cognates in most ‘Northern’ languages, Old Frisian, Old Norse, etc., but also Finnish reitti (‘route’ < ‘sea route’). Runs, not surprisingly, along the southern shore of Tallinna Reid, easternmost of Tallinn’s bays. Confusingly, Tallinna laht, Tallinn Bay (see Lahe), consists in 4 bays (lahed) running west to east: Kakumäe or Tiskre, Kopli and Paljassaare bays, then Tallinna Reid. This street is part of the E67 from Helsinki to Prague.