With the recent discussion of TerraServer, I would like to proudly announce that my employer, Maptech, is now hosting the Historical USGS topographic map collection that was started by rail historian Chris Marshall. From its humble beginnings of a collection of New Hampshire topos, the site now encompasses much of the northeast, including all of New England, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware. This collection of maps is essential for anyone researching railroad history.

Please help spread the word about this site. We are also looking for volunteers to help expand the coverage nation-wide. (There are already several additional states in the works!) Also, we hope to be adding links to current aeral photomaps (aka TerraServer) right from the historical quadrangles!

I apologize for the somewhat commercial nature of this post, but I feel this tool (which we are offering free to the Internet community) is of incredible value to rail historians (as well as many other history buffs.)

-Ed Lecuyer
Mapetch, Inc.
elecuyer@maptech.com

Historical USGS topos at maptech.com
elecuyer@maptech.com

Got the site bookmarked and will patiently wait for Ohio to be added. Will there be a selection of dates available ? ie: The interurbans lasted in Ohio from roughly 1890 to 1940 and maps before and after do not show them. Great job, thanks


lamontdc@adelphia.net

Ohio is comming real soon (I think Chris has compiled the data, all we need to do is get it and post it.)

When you look up by quad name, it shows the dates. Unfortunately, USGS quads are updated in a very haphazard fashion (which continues to this day). Thus, there may be periods of time that whole railroads may come and go that will be missing from the maps.

Of course, as more quads from different dates are located and scanned, they will be added to the site. However, I must stress that this is a volunteer/non-commercial effort and (as such) it relies on folks to go and scan the maps to be shared with everyone.

-Ed Lecuyer


Historical USGS topos at maptech.com
elecuyer@maptech.com