Ancient Rome, courtesy of Google
Ok, now THIS is cool . . . Google’s beefed up its GoogleEarth offerings with Rome, c. 320 A.D. Everything you ever wanted to know about the city when Constantine ruled the place. Now if they could just get keep my #$# Gmail from going down every five minutes, we’d be all set.
But I gotta admit, this is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time: the idea that the web would eventually get us to the point where you can walk through virtual historical cities. I just never thought there’d be a market for it (and maybe there won’t be). But there are so many places I’d love to see. Paris during Year One of the revolution. London in early Norman days. Closer to home, I’d like to see what Dupont Circle (where I live, in D.C.) was like before I showed up. What WAS at R and Connecticut before they put that #$# Starbucks there? This mapping out of the past has possibilities.
“So many dead roads you will never use again . . . ” —William Burroughs
