911

Remembering 9/11 with Google Earth

September 12, 2016

We have done a number of posts in past years covering various aspects of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent rebuilding of the World Trade Center, so today we will only be looking at some of the most recent changes.

If you go to the site of the World Trade Center in Google Earth, and turn off the 3D buildings layer, the whole square is sunk into the ground by about 20 m. We believe this was either done when it was a construction zone (and was below ground level), or, it is to stop the satellite imagery showing through when 3D imagery is turned on since the two pools do sink into the ground.

The satellite image currently in the default layer was captured on June 26th, 2016, and shows 3 World Trade Center nearing completion. According to Wikipedia, the concrete core is now at its maximum height. It can also be seen in Street View. We previously created a Street View slideshow showing the changes that have taken place over the years. We have updated it with the most recent imagery below.

Speed in milliseconds per image:

We believe there are at least two major buildings still to be built at the site. World Trade Center 2 in the corner opposite the pools, and World Trade Center 5 on an adjacent block. See Wikipedia for more.

Remembering 9/11 with Google Earth

September 11, 2014

We have talked about the anniversary of 9/11 a number of times in the past, including 2006, 2010, 2011 (a three part series 1 2 3), 2012 and 2013. We also followed the progress of the new World Trade Center buildings in May 2010 and May 2012.

The 3D imagery in New York is still the same as it was last year, with the ‘new’ type of 3D imagery actually showing slightly less progress on the buildings than the older type of 3D, which can be viewed by going to ‘historical imagery’. However, Historical Street View was introduced in April 2014, so we can now show you the progress of the building of the new World Trade Center using Street View.

The new World Trade Center over time in Street View.

Remembering 9/11 with Google Earth

September 11, 2013

With today marking the 12th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, we thought we’d again take a look at the ever-changing skyline of the city. New York City has changed quite a bit in Google Earth in the past year, thanks largely to the introduction of 3D Imagery to the city.

Past
The best look at the old towers comes from this KMZ file from Patrick Griffin. In order to see the towers clearly, you can switch back to the legacy 3D buildings (tools –> options –> uncheck “use 3d imagery”) and then right-click on the new buildings and choose to “hide” them. They’ll come back the next time you start Google Earth.

Present
By simply flying to New York City in Google Earth you can see a few of new buildings well underway. In the screenshot below you’ll see One World Trade Center on the left, and Four World Trade Center on the right.

Future
To get a glimpse of how the completed buildings will look in a few years, you can grab this KMZ file. It will be a number of years until they’re all complete, but Google Earth can help give you a great feel for what things will be like when they’re done.

3D Imagery
Since last year, Google has finally updated New York to their new 3D imagery. As we’ve seen in other cities, it makes New York look amazing from the air but a bit blocky when you zoomdown to street level (especially when compared to the Street View-generated building facades that were added a few years ago).

It’ll be interesting to see how quickly Google updates their 3D imagery to show progress on buildings like these. It’s already behind a good bit, as the glass on One WTC is already completed. Our hope is that Google is able to frequently update 3D imagery, ideally making it a bit sharper and more useful on each update.

Remembering 9/11 with Google Earth

September 11, 2012

With today marking the 11th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York city, we thought we’d again take a look at the ever-changing skyline of the city.
Past
The best look at the old towers comes from this KML file from Patrick Griffin. In order to see the towers clearly, you can right-click on the new buildings and choose to “hide” them. They’ll come back the next time you start Google Earth.

Future
To get a glimpse of how the completed buildings will look in a few years, you can grab this KMZ file.

Google Earth File. You must have GE installed.

It will be a number of years until they’re all complete, but Google Earth can help give you a great feel for what things will be like when they’re done.

3D Imagery
All of that said, New York could look very different in Google Earth by next year. Google is rolling out their new 3D imagery to more cities, and they plan to release it for desktop users by the end of the year. Given the size and popularity of New York City, I would expect we’ll see a version of it using this new imagery before too long.
It will be interesting to see how the new 3d imagery compares to the existing 3d buildings, particularly in New York thanks to the amazing Street View-generated building facades that were added a few years ago.

It should be an interesting year to see how things develop!

New York’s newest “Tallest Building”

May 1, 2012

The Empire State Building was the tallest building in the world following its completion in 1931. It lost the title in 1972 to the World Trade Center, but regained its status as the tallest in New York following the horrible terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Yesterday it was again demoted to being the second tallest in the city when the new One World Trade Center building surpassed its height of 1,250 feet tall.

The model of the new building inside of Google Earth is updated regularly, but SketchUp artist Athinaios in the 3D Warehouse regularly updates his model and is a much better source to use.
You can pull the model directly into Google Earth by using this KML file.

To avoid having both buildings overlapping, you can right-click on the existing model and choose “Hide Building”. Any buildings hidden using this method will automatically be restored the next time you start Google Earth.
Nice work, Athinaios!
(via SketchUp Island)