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Watch 30 Years of Pittsburgh’s Renaissance in 30 Seconds

Pittsburgh has come a long way in the past couple decades — transforming itself from a rusted out Rustbelt town to one of the most livable small cities in America. And using a cool Google app called Timelapse, you can actually see how that renaissance has changed the city’s footprint over the past 30 years. For starters, here’s a wide-angle view of the metro area, which animates one satellite image for each year from 1985 to 2016.

 

And zoom in on the North Shore and you can actually watch Three Rivers Stadium disappear and Heinz Field and PNC Park go up as part of the big redevelopment of the riverfronts.


 

And west of the city, the expansion of the airport and freeways is pretty dramatic.


 

And how the western suburbs between the airport and the city boom.


 

And likewise with the I-279 freeway north of the city.


 

Of course, you can also use Google Timelapse to see how other landscapes across the world have changed in the past 30 years. Like the retreat of the Columbia Glacier in Alaska.


 

And the construction of this giant solar farm in a desert in China’s Qinghai province.


 

One shout out: These Google Timelapse animations were actually made possible using technology developed by Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab. Nice job, CMU. Keep the good ideas coming.

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