One of the very first locations posted on Google Sightseeing back in 2005 was Niagara Falls. Just a few miles away, though, is another site that the local tourist board is probably rather less proud of. In the late 1970s, the neighbourhood of Love Canal was at the centre of a huge public health scandal, after it emerged that it had been built on top of a landfill containing 21,000 tons of toxic waste, which subsequently began to leak.

The canal itself¹ dates back to the 1890s: an abortive attempt to bypass Niagara Falls that barely got started before funding ran out. As the surrounding town grew, the abandoned excavations were used to dump first municipal waste and then, by the 1940s, 55-gallon drums of waste from a nearby chemical factory. Once it was full, it was covered over with clay and soil.

Unfortunately, around this time, local officials were looking for a nice big open space to build new schools. You can see where this is going, can’t you? As well as two schools, hundreds of houses were also constructed right on top of a toxic time bomb. Residents began to notice health problems, and all manner of gunk oozing out of the ground, and eventually the government realised something was up and evacuated the area.

Today, the canal site looks fairly innocuous: the houses and school in the central area were demolished, leaving a green field (surrounded by a 2.4 metre barbed wire fence) and a treatment plant that was built to stop contaminated groundwater escaping.

Just to the west, you can still see the residential roads and the foundations of houses that were demolished.

Street View reveals an eerily deserted scene, with cracked tarmac, faded street signs, and weeds taking over the vacant plots. On the day the Street View car came by, there were some suitably apocalyptic-looking black clouds to add to the atmosphere.

East of the canal, most houses are gone but it looks as though a few stubborn folks have stayed put. It seems quite a pleasant wooded neighbourhood, if you can ignore what’s under your feet.

In many places nearby, new houses have actually been built. Just a few yards from the footprints of demolished homes, and overlooking the heart of the dump site, lies a seemingly brand-new development of apartments; and further north, hundreds of homes surround the site of the 93rd Street school, one of the two that were closed due to contamination.

Love Canal wasn’t the only American community to fall victim to chemical contamination around this time. The town of Times Beach, Missouri, was evacuated and totally wiped off the map in the early 1980s after it was discovered that oil sprayed on dirt roads to keep the dust down was chock-full of dioxins - among the most toxic chemicals in existence. Today, the area is a state park, but you can still clearly see the lines of the streets.

Read more about Love Canal and Times Beach at Wikipedia.

Yesterday Google released a major update to Google Earth, adding 3D oceans, a Mars browser and, best of all, historical imagery for much of the globe.

In some places the images go back decades, such as this shot of the Las Vegas strip from July 1950.

When compared with the current view you can see how the strip expanded around the airport, which was in the middle of a barren desert.

Manhattan island also has images for many different years, and going back to April 1994 we can see the World Trade Centre towers.

Although there’s a wealth of new images we’ve never seen before, the update also gives us back lots of great shots that had previously been removed.

Way back in May 2005 we posted a stealth bomber that had been spotted at Edward’s Air Force Base, but later vanished with an image update. Now, by scrolling back to March 15th 2005, the bomber re-appears.

Or, if we keep going back until May 1994 we can see a couple of Blackbirds instead.

We can also revisit one of my favourite sights from the Google Sightseeing archives, the SS American Star.

These days it’s almost completely submerged, but step back through time until 2000 and you’ll see it rise out of the water and right itself.

So, get browsing the archives, and let us know what’s returned!

Last week Google removed some street view photos from upstate New York as they showed the camera car hitting a wild deer as it crossed the road.

The Google Sightseeing team was unfortunately on holiday when the news broke¹, but the images were captured by various other sites before Google took them down.

However, you can still see deer in Japan, where Google drivers have managed to avoid a repeat incident.

Google have now issued a statement, complete with advice on what if a deer bolts in front of your car.

Time and time again we’ve seen that the moment the Street View car is passing, people have an incredible urge to fall off the mode of transport they’re travelling on.

As the Street View car drives up 88th Street New York, we see a kid on the sidewalk, who in time-honoured fashion decides to take a truly spectacular tumble from his scooter at the exact moment the Street View camera has a perfect view. Good thing he had his helmet on eh?

Fortunately the kid seems to pick himself up ok, and as the car pulls away it seems that all the kid is worrying about is whether his friends saw him fall off or not.

Little does the poor child know that the whole world was there to witness his embarrassing crash. I expect the images will be pulled very soon…

Thanks to Sweet Gams.

Dotting the landscape here in Mountainville, New York, is a collection of bizarre shapes and interesting shadows. This is actually a huge outdoor sculpture garden called the Storm King Art Center.

Founded in 1960 by Ralph E. Ogden as a gallery for Hudson River School painters, today the 202 hectares (500 acres) of landscaped lawns, fields and woodlands are home to hundreds of sculptures.

New York resident sculptor Mark di Suvero has several pieces here, such as Mozart’s Birthday and Mother Peace (more info and pictures are available at the Storm King site).

Mother Peace, 1970

Di Suvero was in construction as a young man, but after a serious accident started using an arc welder to create large outdoor sculptures incorporating scrap metal and structural steel - like the enormous Pyramidian (this photo at Flickr gives a good sense of scale).

Pyramidian, 1970

Internationally renowned Polish sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz created the seemingly accurately titled “Sarcophagi in Glass Houses” that we can see here (more info and ground-level pic).

Sarcophagi in Glass Houses, 1989

Another American, David von Schlegell, is responsible for several pieces on permanent display here titled “Untitled”, including this one, “Untitled” (ground level picture).

Unititled, 1969

Not wanting to be left out, the UK is represented by the brilliant Andy Goldsworthy, whose 694 metre (2,278 foot) long Storm King Wall can be seen falling into the lake, and emerging from the other side to take a meandering path through the trees (more info and ground-level photo).

Storm King Wall, 1998

There are many other recognisable artworks dotted about the grounds, including Adam by Alexander Liberman and Free Ride Home by Kenneth Snelson, as well as others that I haven’t been able to find any information about, like this large boat-like thing perched on a small island, or this mish-mash of what looks like huge red tubes.

The Wikipedia page on Storm King is short but to-the-point, whilst the official site would have to try very hard to be any more rambling and wordy. There’s a Flickr Pool with some good images too.

Thanks to Ryan, Wayne Citrin and Adrian Likins.