AARoads Forum

National Boards => General Highway Talk => Topic started by: NE2 on February 18, 2012, 09:17:20 PM

Title: holy crap - lots of historic USGS topos now online
Post by: NE2 on February 18, 2012, 09:17:20 PM
http://nationalmap.gov/historical/
Title: Re: holy crap - lots of historic USGS topos now online
Post by: WillWeaverRVA on February 18, 2012, 09:30:50 PM
Holy crap indeed, awesome find. There's lots of really neat stuff on here.
Title: Re: holy crap - lots of historic USGS topos now online
Post by: Takumi on February 18, 2012, 09:48:26 PM
Wow, great find.
Title: Re: holy crap - lots of historic USGS topos now online
Post by: Hot Rod Hootenanny on February 18, 2012, 10:56:41 PM
cue facebook like symbol.  :clap:
Title: Re: holy crap - lots of historic USGS topos now online
Post by: empirestate on February 19, 2012, 01:07:21 AM
Oh yeah, I've been rifling through there for a while now! I posted about this a while back, but I don't remember on what forum (might have been m.t.r.). But yes, by the way everyone, USGS is releasing all old historical editions for free online! :-) That might just make up for US Topo...

(Although, I've noticed that the lastest National Map online viewer shows a lot of the data that's lamentably omitted from US Topo, such as corporate limits and MCD boundaries. I've always considered those to be a hallmark of the USGS topo. If only we could get them to keep showing things like California ranchos and Hawaiian ahupua`a...)
Title: Re: holy crap - lots of historic USGS topos now online
Post by: kkt on February 19, 2012, 05:59:37 PM
This is awesome!  Thanks for the link.
Title: Re: holy crap - lots of historic USGS topos now online
Post by: NE2 on March 29, 2012, 09:25:17 PM
Florida is now up (at least in part).
Title: Re: holy crap - lots of historic USGS topos now online
Post by: empirestate on March 29, 2012, 09:58:48 PM
It's been fun for me to see how editions have changed over the years...you can even tell things like which map is from the mid-60s because of the deep shade of green they used then, versus the more golden yellow-green hues of the 50s editions. I also never knew there was a 30x30-minute series, at 1:125k scale, around the turn of the century, or that the 1:250k series was published in some areas as folded maps.

You also find gems like the ex-Army Map Service editions of the 40s, showing every building in NYC for example, and the depression-era quads that were produced in collaboration with local governments and probably as some sort of WPA initiative.

In a word, fun for the map geek!
Title: Re: holy crap - lots of historic USGS topos now online
Post by: formulanone on March 30, 2012, 01:58:57 AM
This calls for Homer's Patented Space-Age Out of This World Moon Waffles:

(https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQaYjduyom3gw_p7CVj91OgtqPbAmiCw_gAeW3c8F9dpJKoJaMt2g)

Great, so much for sleep tonight.
Title: Re: holy crap - lots of historic USGS topos now online
Post by: KEK Inc. on March 30, 2012, 05:19:24 AM
Cool find!
Title: Re: holy crap - lots of historic USGS topos now online
Post by: F350 on March 30, 2012, 09:15:31 AM
Very nice find.

I'm finding so many railroad beds in old maps that I've never seen/heard. Time to explore...
Title: Re: holy crap - lots of historic USGS topos now online
Post by: SimMoonXP on March 30, 2012, 02:07:08 PM
I can see the US-395 older alignment on "Poway Valley" topo map in 1942 as Poway was like almost empty town back then in near World War 2 era. US-395 is now I-15 as further west. I-15 is extremely large freeway as more than 12 lanes with 4 lanes express lanes.