One of my many interests is highways and maps. I wouldn't consider myself a "road buff" per se, but I enjoy tracing roads through maps, and proposed corridors, etc.
Since you are a creator of some worlds and places yourself, do you ever engage in this seldom-realized pasttime of studying maps and highways?
(I promise I have many more questions like this, so watch out! )
I am interested in really old maps, mostly as works of art. I have a huge world map on one wall in my front hall, but I would not recommend anyone use it to try to get from A to B!
This is something that I've recently gained an interest in, as well. Looking into the history of the neighborhood I live in got me started...I've mostly just been involved with Chicago, though.
Interesting observation. Dated maps can be fun to look at not only to see older alignments, but also as a comparison between today's folkways and yesterday's. I believe it was a huge trend for gas stations, toll booths, and insurance companies to distribute maps as early as cars were in existence.
As for the whole "road thing", it's an almost free hobby (unless you travel the roads of course), one that I've taken a great interest in. Sure, it's a bunch of worthless knowledge, but at the same time, you can learn a lot about the attitudes of surrounding communities, and more about the area you live in. It's always fun to drive these roads once you've studied them, and find out the history and fights to get them on the map. The best highways of course, are the ones that were partially built, but blocked by community opposition.
I'm watching The Man Who Would Be King and the characters are always talking about Kafiristan. I ask my buddy if this is a made up country for the story. He shrugs, but pulls out his book on Mahmud of Ghazni which was at hand and has a map of that area in it circa the mid-1800s. We scan the map and sure enough there is an area listed Kafiristan on it. We were both impressed.
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Mike Nebeker - Super Genuis Good Judgement comes from Experience
And Experience comes from... Bad Judgement
Mine is a slightly different edition, but its main informative use is its dozens of maps, detailing aspects of the war. Very interesting and illustrative description of the war before it ended...
A couple of years back it was an obsession of mine to track down street maps of the NY metro area from the 30's ad earlier.
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Knowing my fascination with the 1939 New York World's Fair, Paul Kupperberg a couple of years back gave me a map of NYC that had been sold to folk coming into the city to attend the Fair. In addition to a neat "snapshot" of the streets and significant locales of the City back then, it has a listing on the back of Places of Interest, such as museums, parks and restaurants, several of which the original owner had ticked off with a pencil.
Fun to imagine what it might have been like to wander those streets with that map in hand.
Don't even get me started on New York City's road history! It is quite vast, controversial, and wonderful*. This is all not to mention the streets you can find on old maps that have been gobbled up by urbanization and redistricting. There is a wonderful site for Baltimore (which is 15 miles north of me), which has tons of fascinating information. I think you may enjoy it from what you've told me. The URL is
---Tim
Knowing my fascination with the 1939 New York World's Fair, Paul Kupperberg a couple of years back gave me a map of NYC...
Similar story here (well, without Paul Kupperberg) only with the Chicago 1893 Fair. It's really neat for me, since I still live here, and can do the "then and now" thing first hand.
It's really neat for me, since I still live here, and can do the "then and now" thing first hand.
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I live, by modern transportation standards, but a stone's throw from NYC, but I cannot, alas, visit the site of the 1939 World's Fair and expect to find even the most dimly heard echo of its glories. It was pretty much expunged after it finished, and what stands on the site now are the remnants of the 1964 Fair (as seen in "Men in Black") which holds nothing like the same fascination for me.
I have never been to NYC, but one of the things I associate with it is the "Hollow Globe" from the '69 world's fair. I remember one of the earliest FF stories I read featuring the Thing and Thundra having a fight somewhere in the vicinity of that sculpture and it just stuck in my head.
It was pretty much expunged after it finished, and what stands on the site now are the remnants of the 1964 Fair (as seen in "Men in Black") which holds nothing like the same fascination for me.
I didn't realize that both Fairs occupied the same site. That is very much a shame...having seen pictures of the earlier Fair, it was a wonderful sight. It certainly seemed to represent the WOW factor that went with the time...the dawning of a modern technological revolution that would take the world by storm.
The 1933-34 Fair that was in Chicago was at a separate location, so didn't do the damage to the 1893 site that the second NYC Fair did. Some of the pre-existing architecture was used in the '33-34 Fair (such as Soldier Field), but nothing of that Fair itself remains in the city. There were a few of the deco houses of the future that found their way to the lake front in Indiana, but they've been in disrepair for decades, and are pretty much falling in on themselves.
This is the last structure from the 1893 Fair, although the surrounding grounds and logoons were made into a city park.
I frequent www.nycroads.com for my area's road history. There will be those that disagree, but it's a shame that some of Robert Moses' project were never completed. Brooklyn has basically the Belt and the BQE and that's it.
vv
Current Topic - An (I suppose) Uncommon Question for JB...
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