Mapping The Center of the World

Two oddball maps that work great together…

First, the Antipodes map, which shows you where in the world is exactly oppose your location. When I enter our office address, it tells me that 90 Broad Street is at 40° 42′ 13.7″ N, 74° 0′ 43.2″ W; the opposite point is of course 40° 42′ 13.7″ S, 105° 59′ 16.8″ E, which is nicely mapped in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Australia.

Second, the ExtendNY map, which takes the numbered Manhattan street grid and extends it over the entire planet. Our office is at the fictitious intersection of South 36th Street and 4th Avenue. Even better, that spot in the Indian Ocean is near 79504th Avenue and 1312th Street. It may seem odd that it’s not a “south” street, but the Manhattan street grid is tilted approximately 15 degrees from true alignment with the cardinal axes, and given 12,000 miles to travel, that tilt can do a lot of work.

These second map shows the power of New York parochialism, both show the power of data sets and modern mapping technology, and their combination shows just how silly this type of thing can be.