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Swiss Historical Maps Allow Journey Through Time In Your Browser

Posted by Soulskill on from the no-dinosaurs-i-checked dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Swiss Federal Office of Topography has published a complete set of digitized historical maps from 1938 to 2011. The twist: a browser application allows you to create a time travel movie at any place in Switzerland for any zoom level. As an example, you can see the recession of Europe's biggest glacier over the last 75 years. The application is the most recent effort of the Swiss Government to make geodata freely available to the public at no cost using open source software and will include maps dating as far back as 1838."

7 of 32 comments (clear)

  1. Google Maps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've always wished Google Maps would add another slider that lets you scroll back to previous satellite images of the same area.

    1. Re:Google Maps by hammeraxe · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is possible in Google Earth, it is a really neat feature. For some areas they have imagery that dates back to the 80s.

      For instance, you can check naval bases and see which aircraft carriers have been in at certain times. Or, more mundane, just look at how your neighbourhood/city has expanded/changed over the years.

    2. Re:Google Maps by mikael · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Extend that to photographs and postcards. I've seen postcards of villages from 90 years ago, and they haven't changed. The most haunting one was to see pictures of the shop-owners and their children. The shops and homes were the same with minor modifications. But it was so strange to realize that none of those people were around any more.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
  2. Fantastic Idea by Unknown1337 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The implications this could have for history records and documenting future changing is amazing. The idea of making this information public domain and easily accessible could drive both knowledge of the country and maybe broaden the understanding of time's effect on landscape, etc. with a huge visual impact.

  3. CERN Evolving by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 5, Interesting

    IF you want to see the evolution of the CERN particle physics lab this this link. You can see the construction of some of the early accelerators (PS and ISR) which were in buildings (PS) or a large circular raised embankment (ISR). However the more modern accelerators you can only detect by the construction of new surface buildings (look for the ATLAS and LHC magnet assembly buildings appearing across the road from the main site towards the end.

  4. Re:1838? 1938? Which is it? by athmanb · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's 1938 so far, they have much older maps that they're still working on. 1838 was the year the first full-country map of Switzerland was published.

  5. I have an idea by Tokolosh · · Score: 3, Funny

    Can this system be patented: Not criminalizing people for liberating data because is it already free?

    I know that Switzerland has very clever patent clerks.

    --
    Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number