A Photo Love Letter: Shamelessly Gorgeous Views of Center City

I’ve wasted so much time playing with Google Earth over the years that I’m almost – but not quite, obviously – ashamed to admit it. There’s nothing like picking a location and wandering it quickly, safely, and comfortably from your own living room. I recently became hooked on the game GeoGuessr, which plops one in a random part of the world (on Google Earth) and challenges you to, through lots of zooming, clicking down side roads, and brute guessing, figure out where you are and pinpoint it on a map.

Interacting with Google Earth this morning just yielded another new surprise – the Panoramio project. Users are encouraged to take their own snaps and link them with Earth landmarks, which ultimately creates an even richer database of the world’s sights as seen by actual human eyes.

Upon discovering this, I naturally beelined it – on the map, that is – for Center City. The sheer amount of gorgeous photos was astounding. I pulled a few of my favorites so that you, too, can ooh and ahh over some unabashed geo porn.