USGS aerials from 1965 and 2005, side by side by Anne Rowland

I have made many GigaPans--of landscapes, trees, fencerows, underbrush--in Bluemont, Virginia, about 45 miles "as the crow flies" west of Washington, D.C. Bluemont used to be just a little village and a lot of farmland. Now speculative subdivision development encroaches on that farmland.

On the left, in black and white, is an image comprised of several USGS (United States Geographic Survey) aerials made over Bluemont in March and April 1965 that I have combined together. (You can see a few mismatches....) On the right is a USGS aerial, in color, of the same area in 2005. I have placed red dots next to houses on each image. There are also lots of outbuildings; these are horse barns, equipment storage barns and shed, feed storage buildings, and the like. By my count, in 1965 there were 22 houses, and in 2005 there were 96.