Vetted route geometry
Normalize every state layer into GeoJSON with era, source, license, confidence, access, surface, and reviewer fields.
Alignment overlay atlas
Mother Road layers.
This is now a tighter street-level zoom map: the default yellow spine is road-snapped from Chicago to Santa Monica, while historic proof layers stay marked by confidence until vetted GIS, GPX, KML, and field-survey data are imported.
Loading map layers
Preparing street-level Route 66 overlays.
Location is not requested until you tap the button.
Accuracy plan
Ten-foot useful means source discipline.
The basemap can zoom into blocks right now. The new route-snap layer tightens the visible corridor, but true Route 66 line accuracy still comes from vetted public GIS, OpenStreetMap/OpenHistoricalMap data with attribution, state DOT alignments, and Rich/Jesse/Jim Ross fieldwork only when permission and source notes are attached.
Field traces
Keep Rich/Jesse GPX/KML private until the collector approves what can be public, member-only, or research-only.
Segment evidence
Every line tap should explain whether it is current, historic, abandoned, uncertain, private, drivable, or preservation-sensitive.
Historic aerial timeline
Slide Route 66 through time.
The long-term target is a licensed year-by-year aerial layer from Chicago to Los Angeles: old roadbeds, bypassed towns, motel courts, bridges, gas stations, and neon districts visible under today’s route map.
66
licensed imagery only
Future controls
Aerial year stack
Historic Aerials / NETRonline would be a partnership/license path, not scraped tiles. The UI should expose only the years and areas we are allowed to display.
1930s1950s1970s1990sCurrent
Partner first
No scraping, tracing, caching, re-hosting, screenshots, or public tiles unless a written license allows the exact use.
Raster tile pipeline
Store licensed GeoTIFF/COG/PMTiles privately, publish only approved web tiles, and serve them with attribution and access controls.
Year-by-year context
Show available years by map area, then compare old aerials with current roads, route vectors, QR stops, and preservation stories.
USGS 3DEP LiDAR corridor
Point clouds for the Mother Road.
The free-data path is USGS 3DEP: index every LiDAR product that intersects Route 66, stream point clouds where possible, and derive bare-earth terrain, surface models, hillshades, and old-road research candidates.
USGS 3DEP metadata first
Future modes
Terrain, structures, roadbeds.
Start by indexing TNM/3DEP coverage by Route 66 segment. The current prototype generates 199 ten-mile stations, each with a 10-mile LiDAR query box, then steps down into 1-mile planning, quarter-mile proof areas, and eighth-mile forensic windows where the old road evidence needs close inspection.
Point cloudBare earthSurface modelHillshadeClassification
Turn on the “LiDAR 10mi” layer to see the smooth research corridor rebuilt around the tighter road-snapped spine plus old/lost research alignments. Station 0000 begins at Adams/Michigan. Its first test box returned 1,073 TNM LiDAR products. Raw LAZ/COPC/EPT files stay out of GitHub.
Free source index
Use LidarExplorer, TNM Access API, 3DEP coverage footprints, AWS EPT, and Planetary Computer COPC to find available data.
Derived terrain products
Process proof areas into DTM, DSM, hillshade, slope, intensity, and classification layers before publishing anything heavy.
Stop-level scenes
Attach reviewed point-cloud scenes to places, QR signs, lost alignments, bridges, terrain passes, and preservation stories.
Smooth corridor
Display a clean 10-mile buffer around the tighter route-snap, old alignments, and lost-road research zones.
Curated seed stops
Stamp the demo stops.
Click a demo check-in to store a simple stamp, or use the passport page for the GPS/photo proof flow. Everything stays in this browser.