Google on Friday initiated an interactive view of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Bay Bridge to users of its Google Earth mapping software.
The new view can be seen by all Google Earth users who have 3D buildings option turned on, give a slink max out at a finished account of the bridge. This comprises a live illustration of current construction of the self-anchored suspension span, the final piece that will cross the divide between Oakland and Yerba Buena Island, connecting the East Bay to downtown San Francisco.
Google and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) held a joint press conference on Friday to discuss the partnership. Google Earth co-founder and chief technology advocate Michael Jones described the new layer as exciting and important.
An interesting problem Google ran into when proposing the idea to Google was that it is Google’s policy to not show structures in Google Earth that have not yet been built. As a compromise, users can see the entire thing, but the parts that are not yet finished show up as transparent. Pieces that are currently being worked on are depicted as green.
Along with showing users progress information on current and future plans, Google and Caltrans have kept an interactive record of what has happened on the way. Each completed piece has a photo and video record of getting placed, which Caltrans hopes will be entertaining or educational to people who want to see how already-completed stretches were put into place. These items are housed both on Google Earth and on the Bay Bridge’s construction Web site, a link to which has been placed in Google Earth.
Going forward, other parts of the bridge build could end up inside of Google Earth. Caltrans has been keeping a record of photographs, including aerial shots, which lend well to interactive features within the software program. Until then, users will have to stick to zooming around the 3D views of the unfinished giant.
