A Bird’s Eye View of Washington State

The world looks different from above. There are many mapping Web sites that show aerial views from satellite imagery, most of these views are looking straight down at a location. However, Bing Maps includes bird’s eye views for many locations worldwide.

A bird's eye view displays aerial imagery captured from low-flying aircraft. Unlike the top-down aerial view captured by satellite, bird's eye images are taken at an oblique, 45-degree angle, which give the viewer better depth perception for buildings and geography. As a result, bird's eye views are typically much more detailed than other aerial views.

Here’s a selection of bird’s eye views of Washington state (click the image to display the full-sized map):

Wild Waves Theme Park – Federal Way
Looking like brightly colored strands of spaghetti, the waterslides at Wild Waves sprawl in all directions. The 70-acre theme park has 14 water rides, and is the Northwest’s largest waterpark.

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard – Bremerton
This 100-year old Naval Shipyard covers 180 acres on Puget Sound at Bremerton. The mothballed aircraft carriers, Ranger, Constellation, and Independence are docked at the shipyard, in case they are needed by the Navy in the future.
 

Gas Works Park – Seattle
Gas Works Park, on the north shore of Lake Union, is the site of the former Seattle Gas Light Company gasification plant. The park incorporates numerous pieces of the old plant. Some stand as ruins, while others have been reconditioned, painted, and incorporated into a children's "play barn" structure, constructed from what was the plant's exhauster-compressor building.  

Boeing Factory - Everett
The Boeing Everett Factory is an airplane assembly building located on Paine Field. It is the largest building in the world by volume at 472,370,319 cubic feet and covers 98.3 acres. Boeing 747s, 767s, 777s, and the new 787 Dreamliner are built here.

Spokane Falls – Spokane
Spokane Falls is the name of the series of waterfalls and dams on the Spokane River in downtown Spokane. The Indian name for the Spokane Falls was Stluputqu, meaning swift water. Riverfront Park, with its islands, pedestrian bridges and trails winds along the river.

Museum of Glass – Tacoma
The Museum of Glass, opened in July 2002, is dedicated to the art of glass. It is located on the Thea Foss Waterway in downtown Tacoma. The museum is linked to the downtown area via the Bridge of Glass, which contains many pieces of Dale Chihuly’s glass artwork. The museum’s main building has a conical shape that reaches 90 feet tall.

BNSF Railway Yard – Seattle
The BNSF Railway Yard in Interbay is over 80 acres in size and has 41 parallel tracks for switching cars. The yard contains a roundhouse used by railroads for servicing locomotives. In front of the roundhouse train bays is a large turntable, which allows locomotives to enter and exit the bays.

Fort Casey – Whidbey Island
Fort Casey was built in 1897 as part of Northwest seacoast fortification system. The fort was outfitted with guns on disappearing carriages, which were raised only long enough to fire. Two of these heavy guns are still in place — one raised, the other lowered. Fort Casey is now a state park.

Washington State Legislative Building – Olympia
The Washington State Legislative Building was completed in 1928 after six years of construction. The building is comprised of more than 173 million pounds of stone, brick, concrete and steel. It is the fourth tallest masonry dome in the world, rising 287 feet high.