Andy Woodruff  · Cartographer | Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Boston’

Skyline maps

22 June 2010 tagged Boston, chicago, cities, flickr, new york, philadelphia, san francisco, seattle, skylines, toronto, vancouver with 11 comments

City skylines are one of my favorite types of scenic view. When planning to visit a new city, or even when looking to take some photos of a familiar city, I like to do some online scouting of good spots for a skyline view. I can recall several years ago browsing Google Earth, panning around […]

Boston squared

16 June 2010 tagged Boston, minimal maps with 16 comments

Geometry riddle: When is a square not a square? Answer: When it’s in New England. Above (click for greater bigness) with the stupid title is a series of minimal street maps I traced to show the varied actual shapes of a selection of so-called “squares” in the central Boston area. Urban spaces come in all […]

Norumbega, New England’s lost city of riches and Vikings

24 May 2010 tagged Boston, cartography myth, history, vikings with 13 comments

“Here, at modern Watertown, was the ancient CITY OF NORUMBEGA.” While preparing data for another spare time local interest map (forthcoming), I ran across a tiny bit of information (“Horsford’s Norse exploration theory”) that ended up captivating me for the weekend. It is the story of Norumbega, at various points a regional name applied to […]

The island of refreshment

2 May 2010 tagged Boston, water with Comments Off on The island of refreshment

In 2008 I moved from one notoriously left-wing town, Madison, Wisconsin, to another, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In reference to its politics, the former is sometimes called “76(ish) square miles surrounded by reality” and the latter is nicknamed the “People’s Republic of Cambridge.” But now Cambridge is more like “7 square miles surrounded by undrinkable water.” Until […]

Mapping a whole darn year

5 January 2010 tagged animation, Boston, gps, map projects with 17 comments

In the past I have mentioned here an ongoing project to trace my every movement on a map, using memory and mouse-clicking rather than technology that costs money. Well, the advent of 2010 marks a full calendar year of doing this and a good moment to show some results. Obviously this is not a novel […]

You can’t get there from here

22 December 2009 tagged Boston, driving, maine, minimal maps with 38 comments

Apparently in Maine they have a saying, “you can’t get there from here” (spoken in a Maine accent), said when giving directions as an observation of the impossibility of traveling a direct route between certain places. It seems to have something to do with lakes and the organization of roads in the vast rural areas […]