Steven Wright tells a joke about having a map of the entire United States in full scale. “It took me all summer to unfold it,” he says.
Well, this one’s not quite full scale, but it sure is detailed. A designer in Cambridge, MA named Ben Fry (who, as you can see from his “About Me” page is no slouch) created a map of every road in the 48 contiguous United States. The finished product produces a representational map that clearly outlines the country, delinates many specific features such as mountains, lakes, and farms, and does an excellent job of representing population density.
It’s not surprising to learn that he’s written one of those O’Reilly Media books (the ones with the cool drawings of animals on them) called Visualizing Data.
