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.
SirFatty 2 hours ago [-]
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.
cbhl 2 hours ago [-]
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.
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).
yogurtboy 2 hours ago [-]
This is unbelievably cool. I would love to see the same for the Twin Cities, or Seattle.
madcaptenor 3 hours ago [-]
This has been here before, but nice to see it again.
If only this answered the great puzzle of San Francisco street names - why are the state-named streets in Potrero Hill and the Mission in that order?
(Though I do love the website's interface)
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).
If only this answered the great puzzle of San Francisco street names - why are the state-named streets in Potrero Hill and the Mission in that order?
Interactive map shows history of San Francisco place names - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16747029 - April 2018 (1 comment)
History of San Francisco Place Names - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5628182 - April 2013 (29 comments)