Much of the Upstate, including Greenville, is now available in Google Street View. Last night I discovered that Columbia and Charlotte had been added, and this morning Greenville was also on the list. The blue areas in the map below show the current coverage:
In Google Earth, the coverage is a bit deceptive. There are camera icons for Spartanburg and Anderson, but it is really only those areas in terms of spreading out from Greenville. So, for example, the Duncan, Lyman, Wellford areas are on the very eastern edge of the Greenville coverage. Since they are in Spartanburg County, Spartanburg gets a camera icon.
Of course, the first thing I had to do was find our house and my office:
I did blank our our address on my house image.
It looks like these images were taken sometime last winter, probably in the January-February time frame. The new cul-de-sac at the end of our street has been completed, and our new neighbors across the street have one of those P.O.D.S. in their front yard. Since my garbage and recycling are out front and since only my truck is in the yard, this was probably taken on a Friday. I was able to find images from one of our new schools currently under construction, and it looks like it’s fairly far along.
It’s interesting to see which areas are covered and which are not. For example, downtown Spartanburg isn’t covered, but downtown Campobello is. It looks like the Google van took a road trip up along Highway 414 over to Landrum, then down I-26, but not many roads in-between. Speaking of the van, you can see its shadow in several views. The Immersive Media camera is clearly visible on a pole atop the car in the shadow.
While I’ve enjoyed visiting new places in Street View, visiting places that I know very well is equally interesting. Oddly enough, none of the coastal areas are currently covered. Charleston, Myrtle Beach, and Hilton Head – the more touristy areas – haven’t been visited by Google. I’m sure that’s just a matter of time.
[tags]Google Maps, Google Earth, Street View[/tags]
Thanks to this post, I just used up another hour of my life. Still not far enough to reach my house, but closer.