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Technical notes

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theschnauzers:
One last point about benchmarks that hasn't been mentioned and which makes them relevant to fixing a location. They are used as starting points by land surveyors in mapping out an area of land for various purposes (such as subdividing land for sale and development, thus creating a legal description of a plot of land.) Before the benchmarks are placed, one would have to start a land survey that might be hundreds of miles (kilometers) away in some instances in order to make sure the survey and subsequent detail maps are accurate.
Even GPS as remarkable as they are can be less than completely accurate.

We actually came about this in reverse order as we knew the land description from the filming permit, and had to translate that onto an online map from BLM (Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior). This is where Google Earth also came in, as it was then possible to go to those images to see what the satellite saw when it took the photo used in Google Earth. What Chateau and others did what spot landmarks in the promotional images released by CBS and find those on Google Earth. The rest of the process need not be restated, but that is how, for me, my training to do a property title search as a lawyer factored into the translating of the BLM film permit.

I know it seems boring, but you never know when when you might need a particular skill set for an unlikely purpose.

georgiapeach:
Y'all are all  AMAZING!! :jumpy:

DrRox:
I actually used this website to locate that benchmark......

http://benchmarks.scaredycatfilms.com/CA.html

Slowhatch, this website does automatically, what you did manually, ie, overlay the benchmark locations data from NGS onto GE maps.

When you pull it up for California, the default location is up in the Sierras........so you have to pan down and to the right to eventually get to Whitewater Canyon. As you zoom in, most all of those benchmarks in Slowhatch's GE shot disappear. Just re-center the area and zoom in till you get there.......there are only 4 benchmarks.....and it is pretty easy to tell the one where WRP filmed. I really dont think anyone out there knew what they were walking around.

I think that long linear line of benchmarks in Whitewater Canyon mark a fault associated with the San Andreas Fault. The SAF crosses almost perpendicular to Whitewater Canyon about 8-10 miles north of where the TAR start line was. The fact that Whitewater Canyon is almost straight probably signifies that erosian along that fault cut the canyon. I think they put all those benchmarks in there to monitor movement along that fault.

Slowhatch:
No Google street view for Austria--only pseudo-streetview (a collection of still photos). The GSV cars went through Austria in the middle of 2009, but implementation has been  held up by the whole German/Swiss/Austrian privacy controversy.  :meow:
Norc, the Romanian street view, fills the gap well in Vienna. The drop-down button for English is at the top-right. Also, linking to particular viewpoints is restricted to registered members.

Slowhatch:
A new photo cluster feature may help you zip through the panoramio photos in GE faster: instructions here.

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