The U.S. Geological Survey has introduced topoView, an intuitive map-based tool making it far simpler to search and access its archive of 178,000 topographical maps dating from 1880 to 2010.
Prior to topoView's debut, finding a USGS map involved a cumbersome and keyword-heavy search process. For CityLab, Laura Bliss writes, "topoView lets you search for maps by using a map of the United States. Start by entering a location into the search box, and the map will guide you to that place. Then you'll see a layers of different pastel colors fill the map in patches. Those colors represent the different scales for which maps of the region are available: 1:24,000 (the most zoomed-in you can get) is pink, 1:48,000 is chartreuse, and so on."
The tool includes a simple slider for adjusting the search date range, displaying maps from the archive that match the user's preference. See CityLab's article for screenshots of the tool, and check it out yourself here.
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