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National Geographic : 1951 Jun
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THE GEOGRhAPHIC MAGAZINE COPYRIGHT,1951, BY NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY, WASHINGTON, D. C. INTERNATIONALCOPYRIGHT SECURED A Map Maker Looks at the United States BY NEWMAN BUMSTEAD AST spring a National Geographic Society map maker, with maps in hand, took off from Washington, D. C., ona 9,500-mile air trip over 28 States of the Union. Colored lines, dots, and shading took form and substance-the maps came to life-as the great American scene unrolled below me. While the ground sped to our rear and fell away beneath, rapidly at first and then more and more slowly, I compared The Society's large-scale map of Washington, produced from a special aerial survey, with the actual ter rain (page 713).* Doughnut in Cloverleaves On land as on map, the Pentagon Building to me is a geometrical doughnut (pages 706 707). When I saw from the air the graceful but intricate system of highway cloverleaves that tie it to downtown Washington, across the Potomac, I felt sympathy and quiet under standing for the driver of the crowded bus who lost his way in the vicinity of the Pentagon during the war. Motors and passengers alike seemed to set tle back and relax as we climbed to 18,000 feet. Far below, clouds hung motionless in a lazy pattern, perfectly matched by shadows on the Virginia countryside. Map makers, judging by myself, are accus tomed to a thought process that flows from the earth's full-sized spherical reality to a certain mathematical reduction of it on flat paper.** On this trip I was reversing the process and becoming one of the millions who use The Society's maps. I let the map herald the un folding, mile after mile, of the mountain peaks, fertile plains, rivers, lakes, and deserts that constitute America. With my route penciled on two sets of sec tional maps, I had cut out overlapping oblongs to fit a pocket notebook.t By dividing elapsed times between take-offs and landings into 10-minute intervals, I marked map posi tions for approximate orientation. "Must be raining down there in West Vir ginia," mused the young lady sitting beside me. She was flying to Hong Kong and For mosa for a two-year hitch with the United States Foreign Service. In a World Apart I shared her obvious disappointment at the sudden appearance of solid cloud cover which separated us from the landscape. But what ever the weather below, ours was that of a world apart, a world of deep-blue sky and perpetual sunshine. Two hours, 500 miles, and one fine meal later the clouds became broken; the earth re appeared. The time was 1:55 p.m., and the corresponding position in my notebook atlas was in northern Indiana.$ Although few cities are labeled with signs that are legible from the air, they all show their "fingerprints"-no two are identical of highway or railroad patterns.§ Reading the fingerprint of the city below, I * See "A Pocket Map of Central and Suburban Washington, D. C.," NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, September, 1948. ** See "The Round Earth on Flat Paper," by Well man Chamberlin. Published by the National Geo graphic Society. t Large-scale regional maps of the United States issued with the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE: Northeastern United States; Southeastern United States; North Central United States; South Central United States; Northwestern United States; and Southwestern United States. $ See "Indiana Journey," by Frederick Simpich, NA TIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, September, 1936. § See "Skyway Below the Clouds," by Carl R. Markwith, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, July, 1949. VOL. XCIX, No. 6 WASHINGTON JUNE, 1951
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