Archive for February 16th, 2006

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

The Flatiron Building

Thursday, 16th February 2006 by Alex

The Flatiron Building (actually the Fuller Building) is one of New York’s most distinctive sights, and when they finished constructing it in 1902, it was one of the city’s tallest buildings (although 87 metres seems pretty tiny these days).

At its rounded tip the tower is only 2 metres wide, and the shape apparently creates a wind-tunnel effect - much to the enjoyment of the local men, who originally took great pleasure in hanging around and watching ladies skirts get blown up…

The Flatiron has been in all sorts of movies including Armageddon, Hitch, Shark Tale and both Spider-Man movies (as the Daily Bugle offices!).

Thanks to Frank Castle.

Lombard Street

Thursday, 16th February 2006 by Alex

This is the world famous Lombard Street in San Francisco. Known as “the crookedest (most winding) street in the United States”, Lombard street was re-created in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as “Windy Windy Windy Windy Street”.

Its ridiculous switchback design was instituted 1922 in order to reduce the hill’s natural 27° slope, which was too steep for most vehicles.

There’s some good ground-level shots at Wikipedia.

Thanks to James Boorman-Padgett and Nathaniel Hansen.

Google Sightseeing Widget

Thursday, 16th February 2006 by Alex

This came as a complete surprise to us, but apparently some widget-developers called Colorworks have built Google Sightseeing its very own widget! If you’re running Tiger on your Mac then give it a whirl - it can display either the 20 latest posts or comments (although you could of course have one widget for each if you like).

Loads of thanks to the guys at Colorworks - we love it! :-D