Putting the finishing touches on this new map and hope to have it online in the next day or so. It's a "curated collection" of 2,672 USGS 24k (7.5 minute) quadrangles from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, newly downloaded and stitched together (about 3.5 million map tiles). In most cases I have chosen the newest version of each quad, but sometimes it wasn't that simple and I used older versions for a variety of reasons.
For my small USGS Pines topo, I did color matching between quads with Photoshop. That isn't practical for such a large map, so there's a lot of color variation. At first this bothered me, but I gradually learned to "embrace the diversity". Many of the quads date from the 1940's (were never updated since then), even more from the 1950's. The largest group is probably from the 1960's, there are very few from the 1970's or 80's. Then a final push to update in the 1990's - very few are newer than 1999.
It was processed at 2.4-meter resolution which preserves the full detail of the original USGS scans. The map has full coverage of NJ, PA, DE, MD, CT, RI and MA with large portions of NY, VA and WV. I plan to expand map coverage to a much larger area over time.
As you zoom out, the view switches to the USGS 100k Topo at level 13, then the USGS 250k Topo at levels 12 and 11. Levels 6 through 10 show a simple basemap I made myself, like the little one above.
This map replaces my older "1999 in the Pines" topo, there are some small differences but it's basically the same. It also replaces the NJGIN 24k topo and the PASDA 24k topo - the new map will load much faster and has seamless coverage of the same areas at much higher quality. For example...
PASDA 24k Topo
NJGIN 24k Topo
New USGS 24k Legacy Topo
For the sake of comparison, this is the topo at NJPB Maps - it only has half of the resolution, so this is as far as you can zoom in.
NJPB Topo
The "heavy lifting" is done, now I have a few details to fix plus some code and documentation to write, so it's coming soon. After uploading/installing the new map, any existing links/bookmarks to the NJGIN topo, PASDA topo and my Pines topo will automatically redirect to the new map and an alert will be displayed; the old maps will no longer appear in the menu. Unfortunately, if any of these are in your "favorite maps" menu, they will be automatically removed and you'll need to manually add the new map.
I'll post an update to the site problems thread when the update/installation process begins.
For my small USGS Pines topo, I did color matching between quads with Photoshop. That isn't practical for such a large map, so there's a lot of color variation. At first this bothered me, but I gradually learned to "embrace the diversity". Many of the quads date from the 1940's (were never updated since then), even more from the 1950's. The largest group is probably from the 1960's, there are very few from the 1970's or 80's. Then a final push to update in the 1990's - very few are newer than 1999.
It was processed at 2.4-meter resolution which preserves the full detail of the original USGS scans. The map has full coverage of NJ, PA, DE, MD, CT, RI and MA with large portions of NY, VA and WV. I plan to expand map coverage to a much larger area over time.
As you zoom out, the view switches to the USGS 100k Topo at level 13, then the USGS 250k Topo at levels 12 and 11. Levels 6 through 10 show a simple basemap I made myself, like the little one above.
This map replaces my older "1999 in the Pines" topo, there are some small differences but it's basically the same. It also replaces the NJGIN 24k topo and the PASDA 24k topo - the new map will load much faster and has seamless coverage of the same areas at much higher quality. For example...
PASDA 24k Topo
NJGIN 24k Topo
New USGS 24k Legacy Topo
For the sake of comparison, this is the topo at NJPB Maps - it only has half of the resolution, so this is as far as you can zoom in.
NJPB Topo
The "heavy lifting" is done, now I have a few details to fix plus some code and documentation to write, so it's coming soon. After uploading/installing the new map, any existing links/bookmarks to the NJGIN topo, PASDA topo and my Pines topo will automatically redirect to the new map and an alert will be displayed; the old maps will no longer appear in the menu. Unfortunately, if any of these are in your "favorite maps" menu, they will be automatically removed and you'll need to manually add the new map.
I'll post an update to the site problems thread when the update/installation process begins.
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