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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The companion facility, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Centre was opened in December 2003 but in the aerial photo it is still under construction (so no planes to see). The completed hanger currently houses hundreds of aircraft including Concorde 205.

The Smithsonian Institution also have two aircraft on permenant display at Dulles International Airport (finally, some planes!). The one to the north is a Lockheed C-130 (one of more than 2,000 built) and the one to the south a Lockheed Constellation (which were the first pressurised aircraft in widespread use).

Thanks: Kirk & Marquis de Sade

Locations: District of Columbia / Categories: Aircraft, Buildings

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The Lincoln Memorial was built to resemble a Greek temple. It has 36 Doric columns, one for each state at the time of Lincoln’s death. A sculpture by Daniel Chester French of a seated Lincoln is in the center of the memorial chamber.

Thanks Spaz

Locations: District of Columbia / Categories: Monuments

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Locations: District of Columbia / Categories: Monuments, Shadows

View in Google Earth