Historic Maps

There is a lot of good information available on the Library of Congress web site. I was looking around there and found a nice set of old maps and panorama views of various cities. At the right is part of a panorama of Brainerd, MN from around 1914. Click here or on the image to see a larger view. Better yet, go to the Library of Congress site and look at the whole thing.

You can get to the city and town maps here and to the panorama views here. I don’t care much for the interface. After picking a map, click on the thumbnail image to open the map viewer. Scroll down to the options below the map, set the size and zoom level, and click on the map to refresh the image. The directions are given above the images. Although the viewer is a bit crude, it’s fun to see how places have changed in the last hundred years or so.

You can see part of a drawing of downtown Cincinnati in 1900 here. Compare that to the Google map satellite view of the same area here. The suspension bridge, finished in 1866, is visible in both. However, except for special events, the riverboats have nearly disappeared and the area has been transformed by the new football and baseball stadiums.