Archive for June 2nd, 2005

Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

The editors: James & Alex

Colorado Balloon Things

Thursday, 2nd June 2005 by Alex

Doug described these things in Colorado as ‘deep space satellites’. Can anyone confirm what they are? (Please, please don’t say ‘weather balloons’…) ;-)

Colorado Balloons

Update: Turns out that these are actually two parabolic dish antennas belonging to the Deep Space Exploration Society located in the Table Mountain Antenna Fields Site.

Thanks to everyone is the comments for clearing that up :-)

Double Bridge Shadow

by Alex

Here’s a great double bridge shadow in New Orleans. Weirdly, Google Maps labels both bridges as the Greater New Orleans Bridge, and they also both appear to carry the same highway. Does traffic only go one way on each perhaps?

Double Bridge Shadow

Thanks: Andrew Harris.

Update: Jeff Richardson shared this brilliant info with us in the comments:

This will seem counter-intuitive, but the area on the left is called the “East Bank” and the area on the right is called the “West Bank.” Because the Mississippi river zigs and zags so much, there are areas on the East Bank that are actually west of the West Bank. If you zoom out enough you’ll see that this has to do with the fact that the river runs more or less West to East near New Orleans, even though the river obviously runs North to South across the country. Also, this is caused by the river’s S shape, which is the reason that New Orleans is called the Crescent City.

Thanks Jeff :-D

Washington Square Park

by Alex

One of more than 1,700 parks in New York City, Washington Square Park is probably one of the best known (after Central Park obviously). In 1889, to celebrate the centennial of George Washington’s inauguracy as president, a large plaster and wood Memorial Arch was erected at the northern entrance to the park. The plaster and wood arch was replaced in 1892 with a marble arch designed by Stanford White, which you can see here in our thumbnail image thanks to the helpful shadow :-) You can also see the park’s fountain where public performances often occur.

Also, this is one of the parks with all the outdoor chess tables. Cool, although apparently it’s 3 bucks a game!

Washington Square

Thanks: Benjamin