Street With a View
Wednesday, 5th November 2008 by James Turnbull
The residents of Sampsonia Way, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania have gone all out to welcome the visiting Google Street View car.
Firstly, they've brought in a marching band for the occasion!
Once the band get out the way, we can see that there's also a massive welcome party underway, with confetti flying everywhere.
Further down the street and things start getting a little bizarre - a mad scientist is attacking some other scientists with a "love-inducing laser beam".
Moving on, some marathon runners narrowly escape vehicular assassination.
Things take a turn for the seriously weird next, as we find a (clearly labelled) "oversized ham". Is there somebody inside perhaps?
The meat theme continues on the corner, where we find a huge roast chicken.
As we pass "Fireman Way" we can see a fireman rescuing a cat. Obviously.
And finally at the end of that utterly odd little journey, an epic battle is underway!
You can see a map of all the things, and read more about them on the official Street With a View site. They also have a making-of video, which we can see in the street view images was filmed by this guy!
Thanks to Jake Peterson.
The Ham in the photo is the same one from the movie To Kill A Mockingbird. Not sure of the relevance of that to the town as the book doesn’t take place there and I don’t believe the author lives up there. Maybe someone just loved the movie that much.
A couple things you all missed along the way…first off is this guy is featured on their website… https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=h&hl=en&ll=40.458124,-80.01229&z=17&layer=c&cbll=40.456435,-80.014373&cbp=1,255.2142946925111,,3,-1.3264024684908287 Then we have moving day… https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=h&hl=en&ll=40.458124,-80.01229&z=17&layer=c&cbll=40.45654,-80.013739&cbp=1,61.81317269178072,,1,10.566556119207172 Then there is this daring bed sheet escape… https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=h&hl=en&ll=40.458124,-80.01229&z=17&layer=c&cbll=40.456667,-80.013071&cbp=1,271.25281699397806,,1,-20.420646304104686 and lastly, I’m not sure exactly what this is about, but the house next to it has cool murals… https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=h&hl=en&ll=40.458107,-80.012505&z=17&layer=c&cbll=40.456901,-80.011843&cbp=1,359.89625721002193,,2,20.140980011176126
i knew those pics seemed a little staged
great stuff! refreshing to see unblurred faces! I really love the girl on the corner of Arch street – a great comment on the voyeuristic nature of street view.
Gourd! People aren’t gonna go of on one because of a thong now … are they?
I saw that girl, but I didn’t notice the whale tail, haha.
There’s also a Garage band, and also a bunch of flying saucers!
I was hoping to find a point at which the driver climbs out to get all that confetti off the camera, but the trail ends at the end of the street, then it changes to imagery from another day.
A great place to spend ones childhood and life. I was born on Sampsonia in 1941 and lived there for many years. My mother was born in the house (504) next to the Mattress Factory in 1917 and lived in the alley (324) until her death in 2006. The alley was the League of Nations. Every nationality, religion, race, color and creed had representation. The Mattress Factory was originally a Macaroni Factory, which turned into a Candy Factory in the middle 30s. It became an actual mattress factory in the 50s and eventually became what it is today in the 60s. Home plate was found in front of 504, and was the place where many of us learned to play stick ball with rubber balls bought at Meyers Drug Store on the corner of Monterey and Taylor Avenue. They could have filmed Happy Days in the alley, and it would have been as accurate as the one seen on television. Well done Google!
Makes me wish Street View had audio!
I don’t quite see why so many people are upset about google going around and doing the street view shoots. I’ve read on many sights similar posts to this one where people are actually quite excited about the prospect of their town making it onto google. I wonder if the oversize ham in this article made it onto google? 😉 ~Phil