One thing everyone should aspire to own is a 70 - ton topographic map of the Golden State the length of two football fields . It can be yours for $ 500,000 .
Something I mean to mail three few weeks ago , before October became the Great Lost calendar month of changeless hum and over - dedication , is the story of a70 - net ton alleviation mathematical function of California , unobserved by the public for half a century , that has been re - discovered in San Francisco , sitting in “ an unrevealed locating on the city ’s waterfront . ”
San Francisco Chronicle ” / > .
In its sentence , the map was considered far too miraculous for simply trim down up and storing - but that ’s exactly what ’s happened to it . It was as long as two football game battleground and showed California in all its luster , from Oregon to Mexico , with snow - capped quite a little , home parks , sequoia forest , a glorious coastline , orchards and miniature urban center savour in the sun . It was made of plaster , wire , paint , and bits of rock-and-roll and gumption . In the summer of 1924 , Scientific American magazine say it was the big map in the human beings .
However , we read , “ The problem with the mapping is simple : it is huge and would be a lot of money to move , restore and expose it . The last estimation was in the range of $ 500,000 . And that was 30 years ago . It is a classic snowy elephant , too valuable to scrap , but too expensive to keep . ”
And , today , it ’s not go anywhere : “ The Port of San Francisco has no plans to be anything but stewards of its computer storage , and no one else has come forward in half a century to deliver the single-valued function . ” If you have half - a - million dollar or so , and backbreaking moving equipment at your disposition , then perhaps it could soon be yours .
( Thanks toSteve Silbermanfor the tie-in . In the archive : San Francisco Bay Hydrological Model;Buy a Torpedo - Testing Facility , Buy a Fort , Buy a Church , andBuy a Silk Mill . )
The post to begin with appeared onBDLGBLOG . Top image via Barney Peterson , courtesy of theSan Francisco Chronicle .
California
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