Bearings of Baltimore Circa 1815 is a fantastically detailed interactive historic map of Baltimore. This 2.5 billion pixel image was created from a 3D model that was a 2+ year collaboration between the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and the Maryland Historical Society. The map is set in 1815, shortly after the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812 (though this battle took place late in 1814).
When you click to go to the interactive map, you get a warning about needing Google Chrome, but it's worked for me in various other browsers and mobile devices. If you click on the sites at the bottom, you get automatically zoomed to that part of the image. The level of detail is pretty spectacular.
The highlighted text has pop-ups with more information about each site - including my favorite, the Mud Machine.
There is also a 2014 overlay showing some of the current buildings for better orientation.
Thanks to Maps Mania for alerting me to this fantastic site and distracting me for hours from what I really should be doing. Enjoy exploring!
The title BEARINGS is actually an acronym for Bird's Eye Annotated Representational Image/Navigable Gigapixel Scene.
The highlighted text has pop-ups with more information about each site - including my favorite, the Mud Machine.
Thanks to Maps Mania for alerting me to this fantastic site and distracting me for hours from what I really should be doing. Enjoy exploring!
The title BEARINGS is actually an acronym for Bird's Eye Annotated Representational Image/Navigable Gigapixel Scene.
2 comments:
Hmm, do you suppose it's supposed to be complete? The population of Baltimore in 1815 was about 50,000, but the town shown here looks, what -- maybe a fifth of that size? It's also suspiciously free of squalor... maybe the real Baltimore had a thick halo of shacks that were both too ephemeral to make it into the formal records, and too ugly to make it onto a good-looking visualization?
Oh you and your reality crap! I thought Baltimore looked just like the 2014 view with those four additional buildings and all the historical stuff intact, but maybe not? Good points but now you've tarnished my quaint image of little old Bawlmer.
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