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Meltdown at Google Earth: New 3D function goes awry as bridges flop like a Salvador Dali painting
By Daniel Bates
Last updated at 7:30 PM on 23rd March 2011
Warped and mangled beyond recognition, they look like a computerised version of a Salvador Dali painting.
But these pictures are not the work of a Surrealist – they are what happened when Google tried to tinker with its images of Earth.
Technicians have added elevation to the Google Earth tool but due to glitches the change had a bizarre effect on some of the world’s most famous roads and bridges.
Big dipper: This stretch of California's coast road at Big Sur appears to have lost all its strength in the Google Earth image
The 746ft tall Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco has been made as thin as paper and stuck to the surface of the water beneath it.
In other cases, bridges no longer go over ravines – instead they roll down the sides and go along the bottom before coming back up the other cliff face.
The images were created when Google tried to extrapolate 2D images on to a 3D landscape but did not get it quite right.
Not so great: San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge has been completely flattened
Floppy: The Los Angeles highway system
I wish the LA freeway system looked as good as the google image. The glitch obviously masks the Volkswagen sized pot holes that aren’t getting fixed. The 101 between Ventura and Santa Barbara is so bad it’s downright dangerous. Solution. Place rough road ahead signs on the sides of the highway. This way when a pot hole rips your suspension out from under your vehicle the bureaucrats can say, “We gave you warning and you choose to ignore it so it’s not our fault.”.
I kind of like the Golden Gate bridge image.