City Coordinates

[+Team Cotati]

Hello:

 

Is there a publication and/or a www site where say all cities with a population of 10,000 or more have their coordinates listed alphabetically by state? This would be a great aid to estimating distances and location while traveling.

[+Markwell]

There are a couple out there. I have some in an Access table that might help. E-mail me and I'll send you what I've got.

[+Jamie Z]

Which GPS do you use?

 

Almost any GPS with mapping capabilities will have a basemap which contains an index of just about any town you can think of.

 

Jamie

[+NightPilot]

You can get it here, but it isn't free. Free data is here, but it's just zip codes and coordinates, not cities. Matching zip codes to city names is left as an exercise for the reader. The same site has an app to do the calculations, so you might want to check it before reinventing the wheel. The data is based on the 2000 census, so it's reasonably current - I doubt there have been that many zip codes created or moved in 4 years.

 

BTW, putting zip code coordinates into Google returns many useful results, as does city coordinates. Google is a vastly underutilized resource, as are the other search engines.

Edited January 3, 2005 by NightPilot

[+CompuCash]

You can get it here, but it isn't free. Free data is here, but it's just zip codes and coordinates, not cities. Matching zip codes to city names is left as an exercise for the reader. The same site has an app to do the calculations, so you might want to check it before reinventing the wheel. The data is based on the 2000 census, so it's reasonably current - I doubt there have been that many zip codes created or moved in 4 years.

 

BTW, putting zip code coordinates into Google returns many useful results, as does city coordinates. Google is a vastly underutilized resource, as are the other search engines.

 

using the Zip code coordinate info in the link you provided only returns no data found in a google search -

 

how do you make it work?

[+Thot]

Perhaps it’s obvious, but I didn’t see anybody mention it. When I’m going to a town and want to find caches there, I use Google to look up the city, then I look for hotels/motels and other such businesses or colleges. Their websites have their addresses. I get the zipcode, then give it to gc.com to search for caches.

[+DNK in CC]

You might want to get Microsoft's Streets and Trips. Just cursor to where you want to go on the map, and Streets and Trips will show you the zip code. It will also continuously show you the latitude and longitude of the cursor, as you move it around the map.

 

Using a search function you may enter a latitude and longitude, and the software will put a pushpin on the map at that location, then move your map so that location is centered on your screen.

 

It has detailed maps of virtually every street in the U.S. and Canada, and you can measure distances in a variety of ways.

 

DNK in CC

[+Thot]

You might want to get Microsoft's Streets and Trips. Just cursor to where you want to go on the map, and Streets and Trips will show you the zip code.

I didn't know it would do that. Can you explain how to do it. When I move the mouse to a location it creates a selection box. If I right click on a location it lists streets.

[+ValleyRat & TillyMouse]

Here's an excerpt from Streets and Trips HELP menu Search for Latitude

 

Display latitude and longitude coordinates

On the Tools menu, click Location Sensor.

Point to any place on the map.

The Location Sensor displays the latitude and longitude coordinates for the place you're pointing to.

 

To stop displaying latitude and longitude coordinates, click in the upper-right corner of the Location Sensor.

Related topics

About latitude and longitude

Edited January 3, 2005 by valleyrat

[+DNK in CC]

Re: Microsoft Streets and Trips.

 

To see the zip code, right click on or near any highway and select "zoom to" on the pop-out menu. Then left click on the highway, and a box will appear identifying the highway, the nearest city or town, and the zip code. The key, is to have your cursor on (not near to) a highway, street, or road. Zoming in insures you can do this.

 

If you are zoomed way out and there are two or more roads near your cursor, the software can't tell which road you are trying to select.

[+Sputnik 57]

At the risk of stating the painfully obvious, if you have a city and state name, you can simply go to the United States Postal Service site and get the ZIP code. (Of course, for cities like Houston, you get more than 100, but using the lowest one will probably get you pretty close to downtown. They also let you search by address if you have the address of a hotel or other landmark.

[+Thot]

Here's an excerpt from Streets and Trips HELP menu Search for Latitude

 

Display latitude and longitude coordinates

Thanks. Yes, I knew how to do lat/lon.

[+Thot]

To see the zip code, right click on or near any highway and select "zoom to" on the pop-out menu.  Then left click on the highway, and a box will appear identifying the highway, the nearest city or town, and the zip code.  The key, is to have your cursor on (not near to) a highway, street, or road.  Zoming in insures you can do this.

Interesting. That works. I'll certainly find that useful on occasion. Amazing the things you learn in geocaching forums. Thanks.

 

edited to add:

 

As best I can tell that feature is not mentioned in the help.

Edited January 3, 2005 by Thot

[+Team Cotati]

Thank you all VERY much. It never ceases to amaze me how much helpful and educational info one can find here just for the asking. Thanks.

[+NightPilot]

Compu, I'm not completely sure what you're asking, but put 'zip code coordinates', without the quotes, into the Google search box. The link is for a .gz file, which is a compression format similar to .zip, and which can be opened by WinZip. If you still have questions let me know, either by PM or here, and I'll see if I can be clearer.

[+Waterboy]

If you are in the US with some computer format knowledge you may want to try the Geographic Names Information Service. It probably has a lot more than you need, like coordinates of almost any feature that appears on the USGS maps. I have looked up summits, lakes, swamps and more. Although this is unimportant if you are only looking for cities of 10,000+ population, most coordinates are in NAD27.

[+CompuCash]

Compu, I'm not completely sure what you're asking, but put 'zip code coordinates', without the quotes, into the Google search box. The link is for a .gz file, which is a compression format similar to .zip, and which can be opened by WinZip. If you still have questions let me know, either by PM or here, and I'll see if I can be clearer.

 

HA! --

 

I was putting coordinates into google