Benchmark Street View challenge

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

Now that Google has released "Street View" - showing close up views of neighborhoods - in their maps, I'm sure Yahoo and MS will be close behind.

 

Challenge: who will be the first to find a verifiable benchmark disk or mark in a "Street View" (or equivalent) scene. Sorry, no intersection stations, that's too easy.

 

1) The disk or other mark must be visible. No, you don't have to read the stamping, but you must see the mark. If you can spot a chiseled square or cross - you get extra credit.

 

2) It must be in the NGS database and on GC, and the description there must unambiguously identify the structure on which the mark is located.

 

3) The structure (building, bridge, etc.) must be clearly identifiable by the location and direction information given by the mapping program.

 

Submit a screen capture from "Street View" and a GC link with the PID with you entry, together with instructions for duplicating the scene by other web users (i.e. "click on Hollywood and Vine; rotate the photo to the right, zoom in, check the lower right corner of the brick building"). A photo on GC showing the same view would be super (no you don't have to go there and take a picture, just check if someone else has logged it).

 

Let's go and be the first to find one!!

 

Of course, next there will be folks logging finds on GC by using the web. Armchair virtual benchmarking, I guess you'd call it.

[+Black Dog Trackers]

I'm not so good at screen capture, but I found one!

The mark is HT2268.

I searched for "SP_SET: CURB in the San Francisco .dat file, used a program I just wrote in C to convert .dat to .kml and viewed the (scaled) location in Google Earth.

I found the same spot in Google Maps and zoomed in.

It was the 3rd mark I tried for.

The location is on 19th avenue midway between Lawton St. and Moraga St.

The mark is where the sidewalk to the Shriners Hospital intersects the street sidewalk.

The mark is directly in front of a black car whose licence plate ends in "991" (readable when the benchmark is also seen).

[+Black Dog Trackers]

There appear to be 2 benchmark-like objects at the location of HT0821, looking South and at the extreme closest view of the curbing.

 

There's another apparent benchmark (non-NGS) a hundred feet away on the curb of the NE corner of Treasure Island Road and Marcalla Road.

 

Amusing game Papa-Bear!

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

I'm not so good at screen capture, but I found one!

The mark is HT2268.

I searched for "SP_SET: CURB in the San Francisco .dat file, used a program I just wrote in C to convert .dat to .kml and viewed the (scaled) location in Google Earth.

I found the same spot in Google Maps and zoomed in.

It was the 3rd mark I tried for.

The location is on 19th avenue midway between Lawton St. and Moraga St.

The mark is where the sidewalk to the Shriners Hospital intersects the street sidewalk.

The mark is directly in front of a black car whose licence plate ends in "991" (readable when the benchmark is also seen).

Good one. I couldn't get anything here in NYC. Here's a screen shot of your find:

 

 

Not bad for a mark on the curb.

 

Anyone else?

[+YeOleImposter]

That is just too amazing!

[+Lat34North]

I just wanted to see if I could do it. I found KK0355 in Denver, Co. It’s on the side of a building on Champa St. Look for the Yellow Cab, the BM is on the Column on the left of the building. Sorry; I am not sure how to add the image to this forum.

 

The address shows as 1734 Champa St, between 17th and 18th. Matches the photo of the BM posted.

[2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

So, do you need any special Google Earth? Like a paid upgrade or can just a regular GE from the GC download work?

 

Shirley~

[+Shorelander]

So, do you need any special Google Earth? Like a paid upgrade or can just a regular GE from the GC download work?

 

Shirley~

You don't even need that! Just check it out online!

[+Harry Dolphin]

It seems to come for free. I sure as heck didn't pay for it. :X

I don't find a lot of local streets in its capabilities. But I'll keep searching!

In the meanwhile, I'll post an 'incidental benchmark'.

This from a post on my Mount Washington WebCam... The disk at the bottom right is probably PF0591 Mount Wash

Okay. A half a benchmark.

[+Lat34North]

So, do you need any special Google Earth? Like a paid upgrade or can just a regular GE from the GC download work?

 

Shirley~

You don't even need that! Just check it out online!

 

This is part of regular old Goggle, not Goggle Earth.

 

When you go to the Goggle home page at

http://www.google.com/

 

There are several options in the upper left. Select Maps to get to Google Maps.

or just go to

 

http://maps.google.com/maps

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

I just wanted to see if I could do it. I found KK0355 in Denver, Co. It’s on the side of a building on Champa St. Look for the Yellow Cab, the BM is on the Column on the left of the building. Sorry; I am not sure how to add the image to this forum.

 

The address shows as 1734 Champa St, between 17th and 18th. Matches the photo of the BM posted.

Here's Lat34North's street View:

 

 

And here's a photo from the GC log posted by Flip_n_Jaxx in 2005.

 

 

Pretty good match. Congratulations.

 

Several clarifications:

 

1) As others have pointed out, "Street View" is part of Google Maps, and on-line service. This has nothing to do with Google Earth, which is a PC application. The coverage is spotty so far. When you get to an area of interest, you should see "Street View New!" in a little box on the top. Click on it and you'll see blue lines along the sides of the streets. Position the little icon (looks like a miniature "Oscar") on the spot and zoom and pan the widow that comes up to find the mark. For this case, I just hit "Google Maps" from the GC page for this mark and worked from there.

 

2) To capture a screen shot: get the screen the way you want it; Hit the "Print Scr" button (above the "Insert" key on the key pad); Go to whatever photo editor you use; Hit Edit and there should be something like "Paste screen shot" on the Edit options; edit and save as desired.

Edited June 6, 2007 by Papa-Bear-NYC

[Papa-Bear-NYC]

(sorry)

Edited June 6, 2007 by Papa-Bear-NYC

[+Black Dog Trackers]

By the way, that disk on Mt. Washington is not PF0951.

PF0951 (USGS) is gone and has been replaced by another disk (DOI) (likely in the exact same spot) and that is what is in the picture. Unfortunately, one of us has logged it as found at NGS.

[+Harry Dolphin]

Dunno, Papa-Bear. I can almost make out KU1433. Almost.

 

[+Black Dog Trackers]

I took another trip to San Francisco. (I go there because either it's a better camera they used there, or it was focused better or something.)

 

I looked for vertical marks this time.

 

HT0728 is visible behind some guy's head on the sunny side of the red building.

HT0724 quite visible on the building on the NW corner of Beach and Leavenworth Streets.

HT0507 is strikingly visible just West of the SW corner of Harrison St. and Army St. You don't even need to zoom in to see it.