Google's Street View launched in Charlotte a couple of weeks ago, one of 37 news cities added to Street View all at once. When the Street View feature first launched in select cities last year, every blogger in America was posting about the strangest and most interesting sights that could be found (and I was one of them.) Several websites sprung up to share all the interesting candid shots that people were finding.¹²³ Now over a year later and with Street View available in dozens upon dozens of cities nationwide, the novelty has largely worn off. I was eager to see what other people had found in Charlotte's version of via Street View but other than a few passing message board mentions, nobody seemed to care, or even notice. So that's why I've taken it upon myself to present, A Tour of Charlotte via Google Street View.

A Tour of Charlotte (sightseeing)

Trade & Tryon
This is the center of Uptown Charlotte. Pictured here is Bank of America Corporate Headquarters. Pan down to see the four statues on each corner of the intersection. (Wachovia's corporate headquarters are just a few blocks south.).


Queen Charlotte
This statue of Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg is the first sight many visitors see when arriving at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. She is the reason why the city is named Charlotte, its nickname is "the Queen City", and the county is named Mecklenburg.

Queens and Queens
Charlotte has many confusing roads but this is definitely the city's most notorious. Queens Road loops around and meets itself again only to take a 90 degree turn. At the same intersection, Providence Road also takes an unexpected 90 degree turn.


Bank of America Stadium
Home of the NFL's Carolina Panthers. Go Panthers!





Time Warner Cable Arena
Home of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats. Also home of minor league hockey's Charlotte Checkers.




Lowe's Motor Speedway
The Charlotte area is NASCAR country, and LMS in nearby Concord is its mecca. Lowe's Motor Speedway holds over 200,000 spectators and is home to both the NASCAR All-Star Race and the Coca Cola 600 .


(Site of the future) NASCAR Hall of Fame
Still under construction, but soon to be a centerpiece of the city.





Baseball Water Tower
Sticking with the sports theme, this is the baseball water tower next to the Charlotte Knights stadium in Fort Mill, South Carolina. This is a landmark along Interstate 77, just south of the state line.



Carowinds Amusement Park
This a 112 acre Cedar Fair amusement park is half in North Carolina and half in South Carolina. This image is of the Thunder Road roller coaster.



Meck Deck
This nondescript location marks the historic signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence - the first colonial government to declare independence from England in 1775. Nearly nobody in Charlotte even knows this historic event happened at this spot.

Buster Boyd Bridge
Another spot that most locals don't even know about. Well they know the bridge is here, but most people don't realize that the Buster Boyd Bridge is the only place where you drive north to go to South Carolina and south to go to North Carolina. Take a close look at the states and directions in this image.



Caught On Camera (other interesting shots caught by Street View cameras)

Motorcycle on Sidewalk
I'm no law expert, but I'm pretty sure it's illegal to ride your motorcycle on the sidewalk.





Do you know of other cool Street Views in Charlotte? Post it in the comments and if it's good enough I'll add it to the list above.


Stupid Is As Stupid Does (Google is stupid)
Some commentary: Google is stupid to have paid whomever they got to take these photos, and Charlotte has been jipped. There are dozens of places around Charlotte that were photographed at night time. WTF? The very point of Street View is for users to see what cities look like - so what's the point of photographing the city at night time when all you see is blackness and headlights? Here's what should be a great shot of Uptown Charlotte from the John Belk. Here's I-77, College Street, Bank of America Stadium, Ballantyne, and Carowinds. All taken at night so they're all useless photos. Just plain stupid.


P.S. The answer to the question "When were these photos taken?" is as long ago as last year and as recently as last month. I happen to know that this road was newly paved only about 6 weeks ago, yet less than a mile away the you can clearly see that the Lynx light rail line near Clanton is still under construction (and missing those huge clay circles that they call art) despite the fact that it was opened to the public and already running in November 2007 (so the photos have to be even months earlier than that).

Labels: Charlotte, cool, internet