←back to thread

56 points jxmorris12 | 4 comments | | HN request time: 0.903s | source
Show context
lvl155 ◴[] No.44368961[source]
I worked on a project long time ago similar to this. I had to dig up old maps from major public libraries across a handful of cities and overlay them on top of modern maps using key historical landmarks and geographical features. It’s amazing how cities evolve and transform over time. I think what would be cool is if someone could build a street-level time capsule of places like New York. Perhaps monthly or even daily.
replies(1): >>44368982 #
SirFatty ◴[] No.44368982[source]
There was/is a website that's a bit like google maps, but with historical map overlays. I cannot for the life of me remember the name.
replies(2): >>44368995 #>>44371619 #
1. cbhl ◴[] No.44368995[source]
Pastmaps might be what you're thinking of? They have an archive of the maps that the United States Geological Survey used to serve as their Historical Topographic Map Collection.
replies(1): >>44369589 #
2. Stratoscope ◴[] No.44369589[source]
USGS has this on their topoview site:

https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/viewer/

Pick the area you want to look at, select a historical topo map, and click the Show button. Then you can use the Transparency slider to see the topo map overlaid on a current street map.

You can discover some interesting things this way. For example, I used to live on Hawthorne Avenue in Palo Alto (CA). The 1897 topo map shows that this street was originally a railroad spur line off the main Southern Pacific track (now used by Caltrain and freight). This spur line turned left onto what is now Middlefield and then turned right to serve the Catholic University (now St. Patrick's Seminary).

replies(1): >>44372269 #
3. ProllyInfamous ◴[] No.44372269[source]
Thanks for occupying my past few hours (great USGS link!).

It's crazy to me how many errors are on these official maps (even in to present day, e.g.: roads that don't actually exist), particularly the newer maps creating connections between roadways which don't actually exist (I imagine this is image-recognition errors, when former human techs used to actually field verify everything).

replies(1): >>44373787 #
4. thenthenthen ◴[] No.44373787{3}[source]
Prolly not the case here, but an interesting tidbit in cartography are so called trap streets, fake streets, towns, to trap plagiarists.

See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_street