While trying to download some USGS maps this morning, I stumbled into a website. The link is below:
http://www.historicaerials.com/
I played around with the site for a few minutes. It appears to have a much more extensive library of historical aerial photos than is available on Google Earth. For example in the Atlanta area, I found 1955, 1960, 1968, 1978, etc. Also, the user interface is simple and intuitive. You can turn on current highway lines and other current data so you can what Interstate Highway corridors looked like before they were constructed or when they were new.
I posted a few links on another thread (https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=2502.msg52361#msg52361).
You are right, I even found a link to the same website, although it was embedded in one of many replies.
Other links:
Florida http://www.dot.state.fl.us/surveyingandmapping/apac.shtm
Pennsylvania http://www.pennpilot.psu.edu/
Interesting. Checked out by house, it wasn't there in 1952 but was there by 1977. It also showed the old junction for Exit 29 that I distinctly remember being rebuilt by 1994.
Sadly the oldest imagery for my area is 2002.
Don't feel bad...my area is 2007! :no: This is as close as I can get to anything old...http://usgwarchives.net/maps/louisiana/#state (http://usgwarchives.net/maps/louisiana/#state)
Since I am older than the city I live in, there was no development prior to 1980, so all I see are the native trees that live next door in the small Broward County forest preserve.
Interestingly, one aerial photo is from 2006 and shows the extensive damage from Hurricane Wilma and the next photo is from 2007 and shows how fast things grow and change in south Florida.
The Historic Aerial site is really neat. I enjoyed looking at the old Portsmouth, NH traffic circle, where I-95 had not been built over the Piscataqua River yet.
Hey, that's cool. I was told my apartment complex was built in the 70s, but it's still a trailer park in the 1980 aerial and doesn't even show up as built until the 1990 aerial.
If anybody is familiar with the Atlanta area, I noticed that much of the Gwinnett Place mall area (built in 1984) was a trashy looking trailer park.
The area where I live now has a bunch of stuff from the 1950s up through 1970, but then nothing until 2005. Bit of a shame, as I can see the beginning of major development in the mid-late '60s, but can't watch the rest of its evolution.
On the bright side, thanks to its out-of-date road data, I finally managed to figure out the rest of the old routing of MD 124 that I've seen bits and pieces of elsewhere. :)
@deanej and cjk374: Try MSR Maps (http://msrmaps.com). The aerials I've seen there date from the early to mid 90's.
Looked at it and noticed that the imagery for the I-96/I-696/I-275/M-5 interchange dates back to 1963, back then there is only a split interchange between I-696 and future M-5 to the east and I-96 to the west, surrounded by farmland. In 1973 I see the rights-of-way for I-275/present-day I-96 as well as a part of the present-day M-5 expressway to the north cleared, plus a couple of new trailer parks and some new office buildings to the south. In 2002 I see the complete interchange, the trailer parks are still there and I see new apartment complexes, plus some new suburbs and several more office and retail buildings. It is pretty much the same in 2005, except a few more buildings are seen under construction.
I like checking out how rural the western Chicago burbs were up to even the 1980s. When I-88 (was IL 5) was a four-laner with a grass median through the suburbs.
A little off topic, but, speaking of Chicago, I like how you can see traces of the original circular layout of the Chicago Union Transfer Railway near Clearing Yard in 1938: http://www.historicaerials.com/aerials.php?scale=6.4E-05&lat=41.7711745974557&lon=-87.7710183331455&year=1938
It's great for seeing the evolution of Lake Shore Drive since there's so many different years available for Chicago.
I spotted at http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/5/131891.html?1190901985 some aerial pics of Poletown, an aera of Detroit and Hamtramck before and after the modern GM plant.