According to Wikipedia there are 37 documented places with a single resident. There may of course be many more not yet listed on Wikipedia, so if you know of one, leave a comment here and I might just edit the Wikipedia page myself!

Onwards to our whirlwind tour, are you ready? Let’s go!

In Canada, there the towns of Raley and Masinasin in Alberta; and in Saskatchewan the towns of Crichton, Estuary, Loomis Ravenscrag, South Fork and Vidora

To Estonia next, and the villages of Koipsi and Rammu which are on neighbouring islands.

The Faroe Islands are next with Nesvík and Mjørkadalur.

Onwards to France and the village of Rochefourchat, with its single house and church. Moving south to New Zealand and the village of Cass. Back North to Polana in Poland and Naimakka, a weather station, in Sweden (you can read about Naimakka’s resident via Google Translate).

To England next with Hilbre Island and Steep Holm (we’re half way through, hope you can keep up!) Scotland is next on the list with Eilean Donan (once home to Connor MacLeod), Forewick Holm, Innis Chonan, Sanda and Shuna.

Finally, to the final country on our tour, the United States, where the state of Maine has Criehaven and Hibberts Gore, Minnesota has Kiel Township and the oddly named Township 157-30, New Hampshire has Dix’s Grant and Green’s Grant. Then there’s Bonanza in Utah, Hanks in North Dakota, Hobart Bay in Alaska, Holy City in California, Laurier in Washington state, Monowi in Nebraska and last, but by no means least, Oil Springs Reservation in New York state.

Most of the places we visited today have an entry in Wikipedia, where you can usually find more information about what happened to these places. Many of the towns are on the verge of becoming proper ghost towns, but for people in others there is a strange sense of pride that comes from being the only resident.

Locations: Alaska, Alberta, California, England, Estonia, Faroe Islands, France, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, New Zealand, Poland, Saskatchewan, Scotland, Sweden, Utah, Washington, Wyoming / Categories: Abandoned, Weirdness

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While the Street View car drove both sides of the Saint John River, it unfortunately did not take the small side road which crosses the 391m Hartland Bridge. It was originally built in 1901, though it has suffered damage from ice and fire at various times. You can learn more at the town’s website.

The longest covered bridge in the United States is the Smolen-Gulf Bridge in Ohio, which measures 187m. While covered bridges are generally perceived as historical icons, this structure was only built in 2008, at a cost of almost $8million.¹

This time we do get a good look at the interior of the bridge.

There are many theories about why covered bridges became popular in North America starting in the 19th century. Some believe that they prevented herds of animals from being disturbed by the sight of rushing water or that they protected travellers during inclement weather (which surely wouldn’t be any worse over a river than the rest of the road?). However, the more likely explanation is that covering a bridge structure quite significantly extended the life of the wooded decking.

Because not every bridge can be the overall longest, tourist officials come up with a variety of other superlatives to try to draw attention to their local landmarks. For example, the 71m long bridge in Blenheim, New York, which is the world’s longest single-span covered bridge. It’s also notable for being one of only a few ‘double-barelled’ bridges – having a separate laneway for each direction of traffic.

Covered bridges are also found in many European countries, and they are often much older than those found in North America. The oldest is claimed to be the Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge) in Lucerne, Switzerland, which was first built in 1333. Street View gets a very picturesque look at it from a nearby road bridge.

This isn’t entirely the original structure, much of which – including 17th century paintings which adorned the interior – was destroyed in a fire in 1993. The brick tower at the mid-way point has been used by the city for many purposes – its thick walls and defensible position making it ideal as a treasury and watchtower, though it was also a prison at some point in its history.

Additional entrants for ‘most picturesque’ covered bridge are the town of Bassano Del Grappa in Italy, and Chateau Chenonceau in France, which was one of the chateaux recently visited by the Street View trike.

Not all covered bridges cross waterways. In Oxford the Bridge of Sighs² connects two buildings in the famous university.

Returning to the US, the state of Pennsylvania claims the largest collection of covered bridges, having more than 200! Many of these are found on streets creatively called Covered Bridge Road (or Lane, or Avenue, etc). One example is the Dreibelbis bridge. With such a large number of similar addresses, you have to wonder if people’s mail is prone to going astray.

Many covered bridges around the US are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it is encouraging that efforts are made to preserve them even when they are replaced by more modern road bridges. The McDermott Bridge in New Hampshire is one such example.

Covered bridges enjoyed a period of fame with the success of the book Bridges of Madison County, and the film of the same name. There are six bridges in Madison County, Iowa, though only one of them is visible on (a rather hazy) Street View, the Imes Bridge.

The satellite images allow us to see Cedar Bridge and Holliwell Bridge, both of which were used as filming locations for the movie.

As with so many of these historic wooden bridges, the original 1883 Cedar Bridge was destroyed by fire, though it has been rebuilt to the same design.

There are also many covered bridges in Asia, though we have yet to find any good images on Google maps. Please link to them in the comments if you know of any.

We’d also love to hear of your own personal favourite covered bridge, as there are many hundreds that we weren’t able to include in this post!

Locations: England, France, Iowa, Italy, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Switzerland / Categories: Bridges, Movie Locations, Street Views

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Over here in Ireland and the UK, we have been known to celebrate with vast quantities of Guinness. Over in the US however, they like large scale annual celebrations involving crazy things like temporarily dying the Chicago River green (which sadly hasn’t yet been captured on Google Earth²).

But in today’s post we’ll be looking at some of the places that St. Patrick has found a permanent home in the USA.

This is St Patrick’s park in Indiana, where they have created a 400 metre long homage to their namesake, entirely in the medium of trees. Which is apt, given how much of the colour green gets bandied around on the 17th of March.

We’ve visited the original Dublin already on Google Sightseeing, but there are at least nine cities called Dublin in the USA alone!

See for yourself: Dublin, California; Dublin, Georgia; Dublin, Indiana; Dublin, New Hampshire; Dublin, North Carolina; Dublin, Ohio; Dublin, Pennsylvania; Dublin, Texas; and Dublin, Virginia.

In New York City we find St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a spectacular Neo-Gothic cathedral in midtown Manhattan that has become ingrained in Hollywood movie history, after being featured in several movies including 2002′s Spider-Man.

So, where else has St. Patrick and the influence of Ireland made a lasting impression around the world?

Happy Paddy’s day!

Thanks to Chris R.

Locations: California, Georgia, Indiana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia / Categories: Buildings, Large Type, Movie Locations

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• Albany and Schenectady, NY
• Boise, ID
• Juneau, AK
• Kansas City, MO
• Manchester, NH
• Milwaukee, WI
• Research Triangle Park (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill), NC
• San Antonio, TX
• Salt Lake City, UT

And presumably just for today (because today is Valentine’s Day in case you’d forgotten), it seems the little Street View guy is standing on a little love heart.

Aww, puke.

Locations: Alaska, Idaho, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin / Categories: Site News, Street Views

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