While it is hidden by the retractable roof on the satellite view, the new 45-degree imagery reveals what I personally think is the strangest possible thing to have in a sports stadium – a swimming pool!

Granted it seems to be more like a large hot-tub than a swimming pool, but for $100 per person you and 34 of your friends can splash about (or more accurately, crowd together) in probably the most unusual spectator spot in all of sports. It must be great on hot days, though during the worst of Arizona’s summer weather the retractable roof is closed and the massive air conditioning system is turned on.

While Phoenix’s pool is currently unique in the major leagues, a second stadium pool will be available next year when the Florida Marlins move into the new Miami Ballpark¹, seen under construction in Google’s images.

However, in this new stadium the pool may not be the most bizarre aspect. There are plans to have two massive aquariums, totalling over 17m in length, behind home plate!

This new ballpark will give a total of four stadiums with retractable roofs in the National League. Another is in Houston, where thankfully the roof is shown open and we can see the grounds crew mowing the grass.

The Astros’ ballpark is also built on the site of a former train station and is named for juice manufacturer Minute Maid. Tying these two facts together, a large model train – with a car full of oranges – runs along the stadium wall whenever a home run is scored and whenever the Astros win a game.

The final retractable roof is at Miller Park in Milwaukee.

While Google shows the roof open, we’re unfortunately not able to see the slide used by the team mascot after each home run, so take a look at it in this YouTube video. Sponsored by a local theme park, this new slide is perhaps more friendly than the one at the team’s old stadium where the mascot – who is still named Bernie Brewer – slid into a giant beer mug!

One of the more feature-laden parks in the National League is the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati².

At the entrance to the stadium is a large limestone carving called The Spirit of Baseball.

On the north side of the stands is The Gap – an open section allowing views of the city’s downtown. On the south side a pair of smokestacks commemorate the paddle steamboats which used to ply the Ohio River which runs beside the stadium³. Nearby is a Toyota truck on top of an elevator shaft. This can be won by a fan if a home run ball happens to hit a sign between the smokestacks, though I’ve not been able to discover if that has ever happened yet.

Google’s new 45-degree imagery gives us great views of ballparks in some cities, including San Francisco, where certain rotations show the stands full and a game in progress!

Along the left-field wall we can see the 24m long Coke bottle, giant mitt and miniature ballpark that make up this stadium’s family zone. And we can see kayakers in San Francisco Bay, hoping to be able to scoop up home run balls that occasionally leave the stadium!

Further south in California, the San Diego Padres play at Petco Field, where the notable feature is a century-old warehouse that was originally intended for demolition, but was restored and incorproated into the design. The Western Metal Building now houses team offices and luxury suites and the corner of the building is coloured yellow to act as the left field foul pole.

To the north of the stadium is “The Park at the Park” – accessible to the community for most of the year, and for which very cheap tickets are sold on game days.

Another stadium with a giant Coke bottle is Turner Field in Atlanta. It’s too bad that we can’t see the other huge advertising icon – a robotic cow (YouTube video) which does the ‘tomahawk chop’ motion used by the Braves’ fans.

In Pittsburgh, the Pirates honour some of their most famous players with statues outside the stadium: Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell and Honus Wagner. A fourth, for Bill Mazeroski, has been added near the south-west corner of the stadium but the Street View car visited before it was constructed.

Google’s satellite images caught the buzz of game day at a couple of stadiums:

In Philadelphia, at Citizens Bank Park, we find batting practice underway and the stands filling up while crowds of people head in to the stadium. Meanwhile, others are still in full tailgate mode in the busy parking lots.

Meanwhile in Washington it appears as though the game may be just getting underway with the stands partly full and lines of people still at the gates on the north side of the stadium.

Some notes about the other National League stadiums:

Coors Field in Denver has the highest elevation of any ballpark, with a row of seats near the top of the stands supposedly indicating the ‘mile high’ level – the nickname often used for this city. I think the row of purple seats can just about be made out in this image.

In New York, the Mets play at Citi Field and honour their home town with a ‘Big Apple‘ which lights up for every home run.

The Chicago Cubs play at historic Wrigley field, where we see batting practice in progress.

In St Louis, the 45-degree imagery shows a lot of activity at Busch Stadium. However, the field is not setup for a game, and there are crowds of people around the perimeter and the dugouts, so it may have just been tour groups visiting, or an open house.

While in Los Angeles, we can see Dodger Stadium both with and without grass.

Every stadium can be explored in more detail in the appropriate team’s section on the MLB site, and Wikipedia has good information as well.

Locations: Arizona, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin / Categories: Buildings, Crowds, Large Type, Stadiums and Sport, Street Views, Structures

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We have Exclaves

The Potomac River defines Washington, DC’s southwestern border all the way to the opposite shoreline with Virginia, rather than being shared down the middle of the river, and this creates several interesting anomalies.

I wouldn’t count a drive along the famous Beltway amongst life’s great joys but travelers do get to enjoy a tiny slice of the District as they cross the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. It’s a mere 0.11 miles, but how many thousands of people wrongly assume they’ve never visited the nation’s capital?

Theodore Roosevelt Island is also included within the District’s boundaries but visitors can only get to it overland from Virginia, via footbridge.

We have Lines

Washington, DC has four historic prime meridians. The most well-known is probably the American Meridian that served as a longitudinal anchor for several of the western United States. Its heyday lasted only a few decades until Greenwich became the standard. The city commemorates its American Meridian with a plaque and a line drawn on the George Washington University campus. I believe the line actually goes right down the street but I suppose that wouldn’t be nearly as safe or convenient.

Southern Avenue defines much of the District’s southeastern border with Maryland, but not completely. Here it jogs around the National Capitol Hebrew Cemetery. The line seems to intersect some of the burial plots particularly in the upper-right corner. I hope someone buries me at an obscure geo-oddity when my time comes.

We have History

This isn’t an ancient Corinthian ruin but the original columns of the U.S. Capitol. This well-preserved collection graces a field at the National Arboretum. I like to visit when the azaleas bloom in the spring.

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal extended 185 miles from Georgetown to Cumberland, Maryland. Visitors can relive those days as mules pull canal boats on hour-long cruises in the warmer months.

We have Conundrums

Unintended consequences can result when someone refuses to sell a property to developers. The owner of this home eventually changed his mind and sought $1.5 million, but it may have been too late.

Can a city truly be considered a city without a "world’s largest" something? Anacostia has the Big Chair, a 1950’s promotional stunt that became a beloved local landmark.

We have Contradictions

The District of Columbia isn’t a state, although it’s often listed as an equivalent, so Peakbaggers frequently include DC as they attempt to summit every state highpoint. Washington DC’s Fort Reno Park bears little resemblance to the USA’s top summit (Denali, Alaska) but is at least subway accessible.

Our final Washington, DC oddity isn’t even in the District: Boundary stones marked the original perimeter at one mile intervals, and some of them are now located completely within Virginia. The state contributed land to form a portion of the District and gained it back in the 1847 retrocession. This stone sits within an iron cage in someone’s front yard in Alexandria, Virginia.

It’s been a pleasure walking you briefly through a few sites in the District of Columbia, with special apologies to locals who didn’t see a favorite spot referenced. I barely scratched the surface as I culled from an extensive list. Feel free to add further detail or mention other locations in the comments, and please stop by my blog, the Twelve Mile Circle, if you are a fellow collector of geo-oddities.

Locations: District of Columbia / Categories: Abandoned, Buildings, Islands, Monuments, Natural Landmarks, Weirdness

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The largest Masonic temple in the world is in Detroit, Michigan. The temple opened in 1926, just a few years before the Great Depression began. Now, the massive auditorium is primarily used as a concert venue called The Masonic.

Modern Freemasonry traces its roots back to the formation of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1717. The U.G.L.E. is headquartered at Freemasons Hall in Great Queen Street, just off Drury Lane, in London.

Across the street from Freemasons Hall, you can see several of the regalia shops that cater to London Masons. These shops sell Masonic books, aprons, keepsakes and trinkets as well as the formal attire required for certain meetings.

In addition to craft lodges (or “blue” lodges), which confer the three degrees of Masonry (Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason), there are dozens of Appendant organisations for Masons to join. Two of the most well-known are the Scottish Rite and the Shriners. The U.S. has two governing bodies of the Scottish Rite, but the larger of the two is called the Southern Jurisdiction and its headquarters are in an impressive building in Washington, D.C., called The House of the Temple (Dan Brown fans might recognise it from The Lost Symbol).

Another fascinating (and massive) Scottish Rite Temple is in the unlikely location of Guthrie, Oklahoma. Part of the building once served as the Capitol of the state of Oklahoma.

Guthrie is a fairly small town in Oklahoma and you can see just how large the footprint of the Scottish Rite Temple is—it takes up several blocks of the town.

The Scottish Rite Auditorium in San Antonio, Texas, is one of the largest in the United States, and like Guthrie, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Outside the U.S. and England, there are many fascinating Masonic buildings—of course, not all of them on Google Street View. In Toronto, there is a large, ornate building labeled “Masonic Temple” but it’s no longer owned by Masons, in fact, it’s now the headquarters of MTV Canada.

Many of the former British colonies have long histories of Masons establishing lodges in the far reaches of the world. Here’s the Masonic Hall in Hong Kong:

These are just a few of the examples of the literally thousands of Masonic temples around the world. Do send in your favourites!

Locations: District of Columbia, England, Hong Kong, Michigan, Oklahoma, Ontario, Texas / Categories: Buildings, Street Views

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Unlike in Up however, the real life properties that find themselves in this situation don’t just float away, and their refusal to be moved has earned them the moniker of Nail Houses.

Edith Macefield moved into her home in Seattle in 1966, and in recent years turned down many increasingly large offers from developers looking to build on her land. In the end the developers decided to build the complex anyway, leaving her home boxed in on three sides. In the Street View images we can see the construction underway all around her little home, with her distinctive blue car parked outside visible even from satellite.

Edith sadly died in June last year, but since then her home was actually used as part of a publicity stunt promoting Pixar’s movie, and remains for the moment, as a reminder of what can be achieved by refusing to be steamrolled.

In Washington D.C., a Mr. Austin Spriggs reportedly turned down an offer of 3 million dollars for his property as it was directly in the way of a massive new development. Mr. Spriggs was apparently seeking a loan to open up a pizza restaurant on the premises, but when the Street View car passed, this was clearly still some way from becoming a reality.

It turns out that there are people all over the place who have decided, for the sake of pride, morals, or plain stubbornness, to remain in their homes no matter what. Here’s the home of a man who lives in the car park of the St. Alexius hospital in Bismarck, North Dakota. I wonder if he gets free parking?

Not even the biggest of companies can always get their own way either. At Microsoft’s Redmond West campus there’s one solitary private property, which was apparently left alone under the agreement that the house could stay there until the present owners died.

The phenomenon of “homeowner holdout” isn’t just constrained to private homes either. At Tokyo’s Narita Airport, the proposed layout of the tarmac was completely ruined by several farmers, who steadfastly refused to sell their land to the airport. You can see how the runways weave around the various farms that get in their way, as well as being split into tiny, useless segments by other bits of farmland.

I’m sure that this post only scratches the surface of this topic, so do you know of any nail houses in your area, and what’s the story behind them?

Wikipedia has more info on Nail Houses, and we wrote a story in 2006 about The Man Who Lives in the Middle of the M62. Thanks to Boing Boing and Deputy Dog.

Locations: District of Columbia, Japan, North Dakota, Washington / Categories: Abandoned, Buildings

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Today, the 20th of January 2009, the USA inaugurates its 44th President: Mr Barack Obama.

To mark the event, Google has brought many image updates to the city of Washington DC (which has unsurprisingly never suffered from poor quality or infrequent imagery updates)¹.

The update also removes the obscuring “blur” that previously covered the Whitehouse and Naval Observatory, albeit through some clever blending of new aerial and older satellite images. Read more about this on Ogle Earth blog.

Obama’s inauguration ceremony will take place to the west of the Capitol Building. Then a parade is held from the Capitol Building to the White House. Google Maps Mania has a summary of several useful maps for viewing the inauguration details and news.com.au have produced a Street View tour of the parade.

The most exciting news however might be that the Google-sponsored imaging satellite, GeoEye-1, will be covering of the event. The satellite will passing over Washington DC at precisely 11:19am, taking unique pictures of the inauguration from its 423 mile-up viewpoint.

These images are likely to be particularly fascinating as the inauguration is expected to draw a record-breaking crowd of over two million people². Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that these images will be included in Google Earth (as they’re lower resolution than the current aerial imagery), but they will be visible on the GeoEye website just a couple of hours after being taken.

For more on the inauguration, Google Latlong have collated some of the best mash-ups, Jason Kottke links to where you can watch it online and finally, if you just want the basic fact of it all, isobamapresidentyet.com answers your burning question.

Locations: District of Columbia / Categories: Buildings, Monuments, Site News

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A 35 metre tall giant is (admittedly very slowly), clawing his way out of the earth to wreak havoc upon the defenceless surface-dwelling Danes. So far the terrifying creature has only managed to completely free his hands, but he’s threatening to break the rest of himself through at any moment.

Which means that we have the unique opportunity to present a very special award; this is, without doubt, quite probably the world’s largest arse!

While we’re unclear whether or not visitors may take a picnic onto the grass, we’re sure that the giant’s giant-butt-crack would afford a reasonable amount of shelter from the wind if someone chose to attempt such a thing…

This isn’t the only example of giants breaking free from their underground lairs – over in Washington D.C. another giant is clawing his way out of the ground, watched by a crowd of onlookers (Wikipedia).

Given that he’s managed to expose a little more of himself, perhaps we should be grateful that he chose to emerge face first…

Thanks to bjarnebf, Simon and Jimbo.

Locations: Denmark, District of Columbia / Categories: Crowds, Monuments, Rudeness, Weirdness

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The holiday marks the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 – which is today held at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C..

Buy what does the National archive store in those white boxes on the roof?

All over America people are celebrating Independence Day with fireworks, parades, barbecues and public displays of patriotism: such as this guy dressed like Uncle Sam in Austin, Texas.

Not wanting to be left out of the party, the Street View Icon Guy has dressed up for the occasion too!

Read the full history of the holiday on Wikipedia.

Locations: District of Columbia, Texas / Categories: Buildings, Street Views

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In fact zooming out to see the surrounding area, we can see there’s all sorts of odd things here, including driving courses, underground bunkers, some sort of weird runway / skid track thing, and a helipad complete with helicopter beside what looks like, um.. the front of a rocket?

In actual fact this is the US Secret Service James J. Rowley Training Center which officially comprises around 500 acres of land, six miles of roadway and 31 buildings. Unofficially, it also has an obstacle course, simulated airport, firing range, and several outdoor training and tactical response areas.

The not-very-secret Secret Service website says the facility provides an environment:

that promotes critical thinking and innovation in the areas of physical, site and event security, threat assessments, antiterrorist intelligence techniques, emergency preparedness, criminal investigations, protection of critical financial infrastructure, and management development.

Strangley, on Google Maps there’s nothing of this facility shown at all on the road map – and on our own map page (which uses the Google Maps API data), the facility is marked as an Agricultural Research Center!

And yet despite the secrecy, you can get an ever closer look at the fake city with Live Map’s Bird’s Eye View.

Thanks to Rickard Jensen, kjfitz and ZedNaught.

Locations: District of Columbia / Categories: Aircraft, Buildings

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Actually on closer inspection it would appear that after performing a large number of doughnuts, these joyriders have (as is traditional), set this car on fire and buggered off sharpish.

Thanks to Frank at the GEarth Blog, via DCist.com.

Locations: District of Columbia / Categories: Other Vehicles, Stadiums and Sport

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Presumably the U.S. National Christmas Tree (a 40-foot Colorado blue spruce) has been lit by now, and even although it isn’t decorated in this satellite image, it has got a very cool shadow.

Apparently there are 36 million Christmas trees produced each year, and looking at the list of Christmas Tree farms in the US you can totally believe it. Totally at random, here’s a small farm near Janesville, Iowa.

Back here in the UK, one of the few christmas tree farms I can find with high-resolution imagery is Elveden Farms, near Cambridge, which has this cool x-shaped plantation of trees.

Finally, if you live in or around Edinburgh and have yet to pick up a tree for this year, consider getting one through the Bethany’s Caring Christmas Trees site, as for each tree bought, they will provide a homeless person with a hot meal, a bed for the night, and breakfast. You’ll have to hurry though, as there’s only six days left to reserve your tree!

See Wikipedia for the full unabridged history of the Christmas Tree.

Thanks to Ben Brockert and Hinkkanen.

Locations: District of Columbia, England, Iowa / Categories: Natural Landmarks, Shadows

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