The notable absence of Swiss people from the long list of explorers and discoverers might not just be due to the Alpine country’s lack of access to the sea. It also might just be that map-blindness is a national characteristic. It certainly appears so from this map of Swiss Airlines’s North American routes. “It’s hilariously wrong,” says Evan Sparks, who sent it in.
“In Florida, every city has magically migrated North. Tennessee also moved north, but Memphis replaced Chattanooga and Little Rock replaced Clarksville. The capital of Massachusetts is apparently Boston, Maine. Detroit is underneath Lake Huron, as is Pittsburgh with Lake Erie. Orange County has moved to Palm Springs. Portland and Sacramento have relocated inland, to the Harney Basin and the Great Basin, respectively.”
Are there two Sao Paulos? Or they mean that the city in Chile is Sao and the one in Brazil is Paulo? :P
Comment by Daniele — May 11, 2008 @ 12:37 am
Swiss is owned by Lufthansa. I blame the Germans :)
Comment by Gwaendar — May 11, 2008 @ 12:39 am
Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal have each migrated about 400 km north east…
Comment by Max — May 11, 2008 @ 12:48 am
Wow. Kansas City is really making a break for Canada. The good news is that New Orleans doesn’t have to worry about flooding anymore.
Comment by Nathaniel — May 11, 2008 @ 12:59 am
Salt Lake City is suddenly farther South than Denver, Sacramento, and Oakland (which itself is apparently on the coast well North of SF, perhaps in Sonoma or even Mendocino County).
Comment by David — May 11, 2008 @ 1:11 am
Awesome, apparently Pittsburgh’s airport is an island in Lake Erie.
Comment by Chris — May 11, 2008 @ 1:12 am
Cartography probably never took off in Switzerland like it did in the British Empire. After all, if you have no colonial possessions and no land to explore, you really don’t need map-makers, do you?
Comment by Raskolnikov — May 11, 2008 @ 1:22 am
I live in the Washington DC area, which is apparently now Washington, DC, NJ…
Comment by Kearns — May 11, 2008 @ 1:32 am
Wow, the Twin Cities have moved up to Fargo. Sacramento is off up in northern Nevada. Memphis is now between Atlanta and Nashville. D.C. is a suburb of Philly. Chicago is now the home of the Packers? Portland (Oregon) is taking off for Idaho. I seem to recall Ottawa being on the border of Quebec and Ontario *cough*.
Wow, this is almost beauty-pageant-contestant bad.
Comment by Curmudgeon Geographer — May 11, 2008 @ 1:44 am
Well, I guess I don’t know where Zurich and Bern are within Switzerland, either….
On the other hand, I don’t make my living selling transportation to Zurich and Bern….
Comment by michael5000 — May 11, 2008 @ 1:52 am
And Sao Paulo finally has a coastline! It’s a shame it’s way down south, where it must be a bit chilly.
Comment by Natalia — May 11, 2008 @ 2:02 am
michael5000 – and if you did, you might consult some handy reference work.
Comment by Assistant Village Idiot — May 11, 2008 @ 2:13 am
I was wondering if they’d put some cities on dots that are meant to correspond with other cities. Portland looked like it was in the place where Boise ought to be. But Sacramento looks to be roughly on Elko, Nevada, and I don’t think they have a very big airport.
Comment by Rey Fox — May 11, 2008 @ 2:23 am
You got it wrong. Boston is not designated as the capital, but merely a SwissAir destination.
Comment by 99Perfectos — May 11, 2008 @ 5:33 am
I blame global warming!
Comment by mare — May 11, 2008 @ 5:46 am
The Swiss do make very good maps – of Switzerland (I’ve used them when walking among cliffs).
I wonder if part of the problem is that the two layers (outline map and cities) got moved and scaled differently in PhotoShop or similar while the diagram was being editted ?
Allowing for the layers having got out of sync, the US cities seem to this Brit to be about where they should be – Oakland is out of line, but I don’t see any cities on the wrong side of the continient, or even the wrong side of another city.
Writing those names in a font that size on a map that scale is never going to work anyway.
Overall I think you are wrong to call it “hilariously wrong”: there is a slight alignment problem but the cartography is well up to the standard expected on that sort of map.
Comment by Andrew Aitchison — May 11, 2008 @ 6:12 am
99Perfectos:
No, you got it wrong.
And how trivial you are.
Evan Sparks designated the capital of Massachusetts as Boston: “The capital of Massachusetts is apparently Boston, Maine.” He did not imply SwissAir designated it as such.
If you aim to be so trivial, at least be correct.
Comment by Scott — May 11, 2008 @ 7:39 am
Andrew Aitchison:
In fact you are right–this map is just a general reference not intended to be precisely accurate.
It at first appears to be a misalignment problem, as in the case of Florida. But not all are significantly out of place–see El Paso, San Diego, Houston, etc.
But others are: Portland, Little Rock, Memphis, for example–and not for reasons of map clarity. Memphis is a case of a city on the wrong side of another (Nashville).
Anyway, it’s not that funny, as you said.
Comment by Scott — May 11, 2008 @ 7:48 am
Apparently San Juan and Santo Domingo now have their airports on aircraft carriers off the coast of Jamaica…
Comment by Kandice — May 11, 2008 @ 7:49 am
The topology of the map appears to be mostly correct, but the actual locations of nearly every city are way off. There is no excusing a map that puts a major city in the middle of one of the great lakes.
Some other observations:
-Hudson Bay is the same color as the land. This makes some of islands in the bay appear like lakes.
-Some of provinces and states show borders, but the vast majority does not.
-They took the time to include the island of Hispaniola, but they put Santo Domingo in the middle of the ocean anyway.
-Different symbolization is used for three cities in Central America/Caribbean, with no explanation in the legend.
And on and on…
If you take a look at the other regional maps on the Swiss website, you’ll see some more hilariously sloppy cartography.
Comment by Benjamin Lobato — May 11, 2008 @ 7:53 am
Lobato,
Well done.
Comment by Scott — May 11, 2008 @ 7:57 am
looks like Seattle is now a great ski destination! score!
Comment by Jordan — May 11, 2008 @ 8:21 am
The maps on the Swiss Airlines web site (http://booking.swiss.com/web/swf/worldmap.aspx) are Flash-based and seem to be more accurate than the GIF on that external web site. It looks like some export errors were made.
The Swiss (not to be confused with the dumb airline of the same name) actually make excellent maps – just as good as the British Ordnance Survey.
Here’s one they made of Everest a few years back, using the same shading and elevation as used on the regular Swiss maps: http://www.swisstopo.admin.ch/internet/swisstopo/en/home/products/maps/leisure/evererst.html
The navigation in the above Swiss government link will take you to samples of other maps.
Comment by victor — May 11, 2008 @ 9:27 am
That reminds me of this map of France aired on CNN during the winter 2005, while there were riots in the French suburbs.
http://vanb.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/cnn3as_1.jpg
Most of the big cities are misplaced.
This blog article (http://www.versac.net/2005/11/quand_lerreur_d.html) says it’s because at this time, Google earth, whose layout was used for this map, gave unaccurate answers to search request.
Comment by darwi — May 11, 2008 @ 9:40 am
It looks like whatever program was used to make this adjusted the locations “slightly” to allow room for the labels, resulting in this disaster.
Oddly, everything in Texas seems completely right.
Comment by Nigel Watt — May 11, 2008 @ 10:29 am
In fairness to Swiss, this map is provided by a third-party website. Though the site does appear to source each map from the relevant airline, it could be a long-superseded draft version. I couldn’t find any maps on swiss.com itself.
Comment by mollymooly — May 11, 2008 @ 10:37 am
…or these accurate maps of Europe – there aren’t misplaced cities but whole countries ;))
a) marvellous CNN map of Europe, where Switzerland is in the place of Czech republic
http://www.riehle.org/humorous-takes/fun-photos/ch-according-to-cnn.jpg
b) great map of Europe from USA TODAY, where Slovakia is in the place of Slovenia
http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/250/usatodayfb9.jpg
Comment by wex — May 11, 2008 @ 12:47 pm
Yep, seems that every city in the northeast is pushed up and to the right. Resulting in New York City being in Massachusetts, Boston being in Maine, Ottawa being deep in Quebec, and Pittsburg being in the middle of Lake Erie! Despite all of that though, Halifax is (just about) spot-on.
Someone said Texas was right but I disagree. El Paso and Houston are about right but Dallas is in Oklahoma!
Comment by Paul — May 11, 2008 @ 12:54 pm
Maps of Europe:
http://www.riehle.org/humorous-takes/fun-photos/ch-according-to-cnn.jpg
http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/250/usatodayfb9.jpg
Comment by aaa — May 11, 2008 @ 1:26 pm
Yeah but they make good Army Knives…LOL!!!
Comment by Iranian Ajax — May 11, 2008 @ 1:39 pm
And chocolates!
Comment by Iranian Ajax — May 11, 2008 @ 1:39 pm
And it looks as if Little Rock is in Kentucky, near Bowling Green.
Comment by Joseph T Major — May 11, 2008 @ 1:45 pm
And the quarter of a million people living on the eastern side of Newfoundland have been sliced off completely!
The AdsenseStrategist
http://adsensestrategiesadsense.wordpress.com/feed
As an aside, I know Switzerland well, and absolutely love it, in fact I almost moved there — mountains, French culture, neat architecture, great quality of life, great trains, and close to umpteen fantastic vacation spots around Europe…
Comment by adsensestrategiesadsense — May 11, 2008 @ 1:49 pm
Also, San Jose is the capital of Costa Rica, not Nicaragua.
Comment by Ian — May 11, 2008 @ 2:09 pm
Denver is way off too!
At least San Diego looks about right!
Comment by stargate_geek — May 11, 2008 @ 2:17 pm
apparently, you don’t mess with Texas.
Comment by sheala — May 11, 2008 @ 4:06 pm
Some of the world’s greatest cartographers are Swiss nationals.
E.g. Edvard Imhof
See book review #7
http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/bookreviews
Comment by Harald Groven — May 11, 2008 @ 5:38 pm
It seems that Oakland is on the Mendocino Coast now and Vegas is only a four hour drive from San Jose.
Coincidentally, I was just discussing last night with someone about how the Swiss never had any colonies because they were landlocked.
Comment by kashgar216 — May 11, 2008 @ 6:13 pm
Meh. At least most cities are in the right country.
Comment by nv1962 — May 11, 2008 @ 6:47 pm
I’m a little scared to find out that the city I grew up in is no longer on Lake Ontario, but somewhere on the Quebec border. Also that Albuquerque is the new name for Denver, Colorado, while Denver is somewhere in the north of Wyoming.
This might be my favourite map yet!
To be fair though, I have a CNN screenshot that labels the country I live in now (the Czech Republic) as Switzerland, which is wrong by more than just a country or two.
Comment by Wegrit — May 11, 2008 @ 7:09 pm
There’s a lot more wrong here than just scaling or shifting. For example, the dot labeled “Cleveland” is way out of place when compared to the Columbus and Detroit dots. If it had been labeled “Toldeo”, that would at least have been in the right ballpark. But then Pittsburgh is way out of place when compared to the surrounding dots.
Nope, this isn’t just a case of the city layer being scaled differently than the geographic layer in Photoshop, or whatever. This is just plain wrong.
Comment by Eric Meyer — May 11, 2008 @ 7:23 pm
It’s possible that there were Photoshop errors, but that hardly excuses leaving the ‘h’ off of Pittsburgh!
New York is in the middle of Connecticut, now! …In fact, it’s basically right on top of my town. That’s a little disturbing. You’d think I’d have noticed that by now.
Comment by Chris — May 11, 2008 @ 8:14 pm
This (non-swiss) European can’t spot anything wrong with the map so I guess its quite plausible that someone made a mistake in photoshop and didn’t notice.
Comment by David — May 11, 2008 @ 8:20 pm
The problem is that this map was drafted by experts, I would like to see your average American place cities on a map, and you can forget world cities
Comment by Liam — May 11, 2008 @ 8:53 pm
Looks like someone was playing darts.
Comment by sober — May 11, 2008 @ 11:11 pm
Apparently Ottawa is in Quebec and Toront is on the border of Quebec as well!
Comment by Alex — May 11, 2008 @ 11:43 pm
ah look & they never bothered to name Cuba..
Comment by bewealthdriven — May 11, 2008 @ 11:54 pm
[...] 271 – “Hilariously Wrong”: Swiss Airlines Map of America [image] The notable absence of Swiss people from the long list of explorers and discoverers might not just be due [...] [...]
Pingback by Top Posts « WordPress.com — May 11, 2008 @ 11:58 pm
I wish that they were right about Portland. It’d be so awkwardly not a port.
Comment by michaellucianojr — May 12, 2008 @ 1:09 am
Hilariously wrong?
They’re all just shifted up a titch and maybe a small tad to the right. It’s pretty obviously a simple error in the final print overlays not lining up quite right.
It’s neither hilarious or wrong, it’s a small glitch. Now show me an American who could point to Switzerland on a map of the world. That would be hilarious….
Comment by Bazza — May 12, 2008 @ 3:59 am
Why do you denigrate Americans? This kind of perceived Euro-snobbery only causes Americans to further disregard the rest of the world.
(And the map is not merely shifted.)
Comment by Scott — May 12, 2008 @ 4:10 am
Poor Pittsburgh! =( And look at how Lake Erie runs into Ontario… inexcusable!
Comment by Librari[d]an — May 12, 2008 @ 4:42 am
Thinking of Swiss explorers and travellers – there was Aime Felix Tschiffely, who travelled on horseback from Buenos Aires to Washington DC between 1925 and 1928.
Comment by Transylvanianhorseman — May 12, 2008 @ 2:21 pm
All the Europeans here getting so touchy is what’s hilarious. Sprout a sack and learn to laugh at your pretentious selves.
Comment by Hugh — May 12, 2008 @ 2:38 pm
I’m not sure how one guy at a corporation making maps ended up reflecting on being a bad mark on all Swiss (or a conduit for easy stereotypes). More likely what happened here is what happens at most corporations making maps: some graphic designer on staff was told to make a map, who knows just enough to get the job done. The Hudson’s Bay being filled points to a coverage file that the designer didn’t read very well (coverages fill donut holes to be topologically sound). As for the strange cities, my professional guess would be that there’s a projection/coordinate mismatch, which would explain why the northing is more extreme in the east.
Comment by Jacob Blair — May 12, 2008 @ 3:04 pm
Swiss Airlines Map of The Middle East is not much better…
http://cool-maps.blogspot.com/2008/05/swiss-airlines-map-of-middle-east.html
Comment by Bjorn — May 12, 2008 @ 3:42 pm
I don’t see what the problem is. I enjoy my daily 50 mile commute south along the coast from Oakland to San Francisco everyday.
Comment by Mertseger — May 12, 2008 @ 4:33 pm
Yeah, it’s not just shifted, or for clarity. That might explain the Midwest and Northeast, but not many of the others, especially the ones whose relative orientation is way off. The worst offenders are Portland (way too far east, and not in a busy region of the map that would require moving it), Oakland (wrong direction from San Francisco), and Little Rock (wow.). I think that’s an arrow next to San Juan, though, so I’ll give them that.
Comment by F — May 12, 2008 @ 5:42 pm
San Jose is now the capital of Nicaragua!!!
Comment by JC — May 12, 2008 @ 6:10 pm
Chris #42 – This error can at least partially be explained away, since the Pennsylvania city is the only one that has an “h” at the end of its name. I think all of the other cities are “Pittsburg” cities.
Got here from April Buchheit’s FriendFeed feed.
Comment by Ontario Emperor — May 12, 2008 @ 7:19 pm
All the faults I found are covered. Completely unprofessional.
Lord Hutton. Geneva, France.
Comment by lordhutton — May 12, 2008 @ 7:42 pm
Did anyone check the other maps for SwissAir from the same site? Africa has many problems as well: Cairo is adrift amidst the waters of the Red Sea, the Cameroon cities have very exaggerated distances between them, Johannesburg is west of Lesotho rather than north, and Nairobi is lakefront property on Victoria.
Comment by Paul — May 12, 2008 @ 7:46 pm
The Midwest is the worst, I’d say.
Chicago is in Green Bay, Indianapolis is in South Bend. Little Rock appears to be about 300 miles EAST of St. Louis, perhaps pushing Memphis East of Nashville in the process.
And if only New Orleans were where this map says it is. Katrina would likely have had less of an impact if it was a couple hundred miles north of the coast…
Alas.
Comment by Pete — May 12, 2008 @ 7:59 pm
I agree with others. It’s not shifted. There is no universe in which Oakland is directly north of San Francisco (and I think the folks in Marin and Napa would have something to say about THAT).
Perhaps this is presaging some major continent-wide earthquake or something…
Also, Memphis is not east of Nashvegas.
Nor are Detroit and Cleveland sister cities in Michigan. Although Cleveland seems to be inching toward Windsor, Ontario and, as far as I’m concerned, Canada can have it.
Put another way, Cleveland is known as “The Mistake On the Lake”, just not THAT lake…
Comment by Pete — May 12, 2008 @ 8:05 pm
santo dominigo has gone underwater!
Comment by bob — May 12, 2008 @ 8:12 pm
Santo Domingo, San Juan and San Jose are not in the wrong spot, they have arrows pointing to the general direction they are situated, as the map crops these countries.
Comment by Nic — May 13, 2008 @ 12:15 am
Perhaps they remembered once that Maine *was* once part of Massachusetts, and since everyone knows that Boston is in Massachusetts …
@53 transylvanianhorseman: Did he actually ride from Buenos Aires to Washington, DC, or did he actually ride from Montevideo to Wilmington and didn’t know it? ;)
Comment by David — May 13, 2008 @ 2:24 am
@27b wex: This error can be explained by the fact that it’s a map of Bush’s European visit, so Bush probably made the map himself. He probably mixed up Slovakia and Slovenia. :)
“Bush recently outlined his plan for peace in the Middle East. Then he colored it.” – Jim David
Comment by David — May 13, 2008 @ 2:46 am
they have to relearn to write maps.
Comment by unnikuttan — May 13, 2008 @ 4:53 am
Neat I live closer to Atlanta now.
Comment by Chase — May 13, 2008 @ 5:22 am
Okay… Not so immediately hilarious to a non-US citizen…
Comment by Scott Thong — May 13, 2008 @ 5:41 am
this makes me laugh. a lot.
Comment by tray — May 13, 2008 @ 6:18 am
Should have gone with the map of the middle east, that one was a lot more obvious. It seems though whatever problem they’re having it’s a general problem with all their maps. Someone mentioned these are exported from flash. Probably done programmatically and really buggy.
@scott: anti-americanism and euro-bashing is a regular fixture of almost every thread on the internet having any remotely to do with both areas of the world. I’d just ignore it if I were you. :-)
Comment by wpp — May 13, 2008 @ 9:44 am
Challenge: Which city is closest to its original position?
Comment by Katalysator — May 13, 2008 @ 9:46 am
Someone may have already caught this, but as a Big 10 fan I couldn’t help but note that Columbus seems perilously close to Ann Arbor.
Comment by Tim — May 13, 2008 @ 11:36 am
Hey, nice new football team, the “Chicago Packers!” In addition, parking spaces in the north woods will now cost $25 a day, if you can find a parking space…….
Ha, for fun, ask a Wisconsin person what he/she *really* thinks about Chicago area people! :-p
Comment by Ron — May 13, 2008 @ 2:29 pm
Apparently “Mexico” is now a city as well…
Comment by Andrew — May 13, 2008 @ 4:38 pm
“Okay… Not so immediately hilarious to a non-US citizen…”
I disagree. This is immediately hilarious to this Canadian whose home town has moved about 500 km to the northeast, far from the Great Lakes. I think the errors would be obvious to anyone from North, Central or South America (or anyone familiar with cities in the Americas).
Also, the boundaries are random; there are international boundaries, some provincial boundaries, but the prairie provinces and half of BC and Alberta have merged. In the US there is only the Michigan-Wisconsin boundary shown and no other state borders.
The filling in of Hudson’s Bay and turning islands into lakes is pretty dramatic!
Comment by minouette — May 13, 2008 @ 5:17 pm
The current map on the Swiss Airlines website (http://booking.swiss.com/web/swf/worldmap.aspx) seems to be a little better. Maybe the Strange Map here was drawn before Swissair’s infamous grounding in 2001 … hopefully their maintenance and repair section is more careful!
But the airlineroutemaps website is in my opinion not beyond any doubt either: On their Delta Airlines map of Europe (http://www.airlineroutemaps.com/USA/Delta_Airlines_europe.shtml) Moscow is e.g. completely misplaced as well (and regarding Switzerland: Geneva is shifted to Lausanne, and Basel to Bern).
But more importantly to me (being Swiss): Swiss explorers are not as absent as it may seem. I would like to draw your attention e.g. to the Piccard family (http://www.bertrandpiccard.com/eng/family1.php). And among others there are also Swiss pioneers in summiting the highest Himalayan peaks (first on Lhotse, second on Everest), and a Swiss astronaut (Claude Nicollier).
Comment by andy — May 13, 2008 @ 5:22 pm
Also, they have mis-spelled Montréal!
Comment by minouette — May 13, 2008 @ 5:32 pm
If it were just scaled incorrectly, Denver wouldn’t be north of Salt Lake City.
Comment by Legate Damar — May 13, 2008 @ 7:30 pm
Ok – I just couldn’t stand it, so I used SAS/Graph to create a geographically _correct_ version of this map:
http://robslink.com/SAS/democd32/swiss.htm
In this SAS version, the cities are in the correct location (done programmatically, based on the long/lat of the cities looked up in a table), Pittsburgh is spelled correctly, and Santiago is labeled in South America.
And, if I get a chance, I might even put an é in Montréal, like someone recently pointed out, but that’ll have to wait until tomorrow, eh :)
Comment by Robert — May 14, 2008 @ 12:15 am
I can’t explain all these irregularities but I’ve heard that Memphis is being given to Georgia in return for water rights and the Black Hills and surrounding areas are being restored to their rightful owners after decades in the posession of governments that imposed worthless treaties upon the tribes who belonged there.
Comment by quantumcat — May 14, 2008 @ 9:42 am
Ok – I’ve even got the Montréal correction in my map now! :)
http://robslink.com/SAS/democd32/swiss.htm
Comment by Robert — May 14, 2008 @ 8:25 pm
For a cartographically oriented site, your commentators are remarkably bescumbered.
Keep up the good work!
Comment by Freedom6_Now9 — May 15, 2008 @ 12:25 am
It’s funny how people believe they can do whatever they want with maps.
Raf
http://uzar.wordpress.com/
Comment by Raf Uzar — May 15, 2008 @ 7:48 am
I would be remarkable if people knew what “bescumber” actually meant. ;-)
Raf
http://uzar.wordpress.com/
Comment by Raf Uzar — May 15, 2008 @ 7:49 am
Someone has got to get some corresponding reference data up in here!
Comment by stadtreisender — May 16, 2008 @ 6:13 am
Wow, now in Europe, London is a big French town, Milan is at the sea side, Lyon is in Switzerland and Gibraltar is the capital of Marroco. Is’t a new view of geography
Comment by Pierre — May 16, 2008 @ 2:25 pm
San Francisco is in Marin County, across the Golden Gate from its real location, Oakland is in Mendocino County.
Los Angeles has moved to Santa Barbara, while Santa Barbara has moved to about San Luis Obispo. Orange/Santa Ana has moved inland to Riverside County.
San Jose and San Juan are ok – they have arrows to indicate that they’re off the map. Santo Domingo has an arrow, too, even though it actually is on the map.
Comment by Anthony — May 18, 2008 @ 5:20 pm
Of course, I’m sure every American could produce a swiss map without even having to think about it. Most Americans I know can’t even make out London from Liverpool on a map.
Comment by Alex — May 18, 2008 @ 5:57 pm
It is just a formating issue, GIS has this problem all the time.
Comment by Eric — May 19, 2008 @ 5:36 pm
What’s a map? Is it an image of reality or reality itself ? It isn’t reality itself and, as an image, a map shows something. What does Swiss want to show ? Swiss wants to show its very quite dense representation in North America. So this image shows Swiss reality. Well, this is not a geographic one but it does not matter. We are all of us under influence of GIS and other Google maps. But it is not the only way of representation.
Anyway, this image is so poor !!!
Comment by Pierre — May 23, 2008 @ 9:22 am
I dunno, I think Indianapolis would be much improved by being on Lake Michigan.
Comment by Michael — May 25, 2008 @ 11:10 pm
[...] map via Strange Maps Shadow Art via [...]
Pingback by UI & Software: Flaky pie crust | SensoryMetrics: re-inventing the User eXperience — May 28, 2008 @ 12:36 am
Green Bay has been renamed “Chicago”, and Gary, Indiana has been renamed “Indianapolis” – which is a good name for it, in a world where the Chicago that used to be to its west no longer exists.
The city most changed is probably Little Rock, which has jumped all the way north through Missouri, and east through Illinois, to find itself on the place of what once was Evansville, Indiana.
Meanwhile, Orlando is now on the beach, but has sacrificed Disney World to the invasion from Fort Myers. Is this an improvement?
Comment by Blarf — May 28, 2008 @ 8:40 pm
This is probably just a map of where you will land if you buy a ticket to the city. After that- it is up to you, traveler.
Comment by boneill — May 28, 2008 @ 9:17 pm
[...] be that there??s a projection/coordinate mismatch, which would explain why the northing is more …http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008/05/11/271-hilariously-wrong-swiss-airlines-map-of-america/From Revolution to Reconstruction: Outlines: Outline of American …The hidden rooms reveal ancient [...]
Pingback by america the strange — June 4, 2008 @ 5:06 am
Not to mention that the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo seems to be in two different places at the same time. ;-)
(BTW, the other red point must be Santiago in Chile.)
Comment by Fabián Fucci — June 4, 2008 @ 10:13 pm
Na, the Swiss are just taking their revenge: http://www.riehle.org/humorous-takes/fun-photos/ch-according-to-cnn.html
Comment by dirkblog — June 5, 2008 @ 8:40 am
Amazingly, airlines (which should be well aware their destinations are) seem to use sketchy, erroneus maps in their advertsing materials quite often. I have several other examples which are far worse than this one.
btw, Swiss is indeed owned by Lufthansa, but this map is 100% Swiss. Actually, the former Swissair used the same maps …
Comment by septemtrionis — June 5, 2008 @ 7:00 pm
Challenge: Which city is closest to its original position?
Looks like San Diego to me, or maybe Vancouver.
Comment by The Disgruntled Chemist — June 6, 2008 @ 9:47 pm
gosh darn!! I didn’t know i was that close to seeing
the raiders games in oakland!!
Mark Jaquette
Comment by Mark Jaquette — June 11, 2008 @ 6:18 am
btw, Swiss is indeed owned by Lufthansa, but this map is 100% Swiss. Actually, the former Swissair used the same maps …
Really?
Follow the link:
Owner, Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Billing Contact:
Khairul Nizam Omar (ID00107374)
FLAT 204 UNITE HOUSE ILL HOUSE
FROGMORE STREET
BRISTOL, AVON BS1 5NA
United Kingdom (UK)
Phone: +44.7796920059
Email: khairul@yahoo.com
For the swiss map, here it is:
http://booking.swiss.com/web/swf/worldmap.aspx
You can make fun of an alleged “swiss” map, but swiss people will make fun of people unable to trace a link.
Comment by Johann — June 11, 2008 @ 6:11 pm
Go figure:
http://media.koreus.com/200511/image-emeutes7.jpg
Hilarious? Not at all, very sad.
Comment by Johann — June 11, 2008 @ 6:24 pm
Funny. I thought I moved from Green Bay, WI to Chicago. It appears I was wrong. Chicago moved to Green Bay!
Comment by Kate — June 12, 2008 @ 6:14 pm
If Swiss leads me to Pittsburgh, I need to take swimming truks. Or I fly Delta or another one !!!
Comment by Pierre — June 13, 2008 @ 12:14 pm
#104, take life easier, would you ? Swissair / Swiss used those maps for years in their timetable booklets ; I was not talking about their flash-driven interactive maps on their website.
Comment by septemtrionis — June 15, 2008 @ 9:51 pm
If Swiss leads me to Pittsburgh, I need to take swimming truks. Or I fly Delta or another one !!!
Comment by Pierre — June 13, 2008 @
You better use trucks instead !
Comment by F.A.K. — June 18, 2008 @ 9:33 am
Ugh! They’ve put Cleveland and Columbus in the state of Michigan? We want no part of those trash heaps. Stay in Ohio!
Comment by James M. — June 21, 2008 @ 10:20 pm
Daniele (#1) – great catch. “Sao” and “Paulo,” who knew? ;)
Comment by James M. — June 21, 2008 @ 10:22 pm
[...] What is it with airlines and maps? Which part of ‘atlas’ don’t they understand? You’d think that, being the business of transportation, they’d get their distances and directions straight. Some time ago, I posted a map by Swiss Airlines that placed a lot of its destinations at a worrying distance from their actual location (#271). [...]
Pingback by 294 - Err Lingus « Strange Maps — June 25, 2008 @ 2:17 am
Hilarious, indeed. But, while they moved the American locations around quite a bit, they also butchered Europe’s geography (as well as Asia’s and Africa’s). London is on the coast, Vienna and Budapest are the same city. Geneva is in France, Hamburg lies on the wrong river mouth, Moscow moved northwest..
Hongkong and Tokyo moved closer together, exchanging places with some location in the Chinese mountains and Nagoya, respectively.
It’s just horrible, and most probably because a program moved the locations for readability.
Comment by Chieron — July 8, 2008 @ 3:10 pm
I love how Chicago has been relocated to where I thought Green Bay was. I guess even Chicagoans didn’t want to be considered a part of IL.
Comment by Liz — July 10, 2008 @ 7:46 pm
To Liz (#114)
Chicagoans really don’t want to be considered a part of IL! Ask a person from the Chicago area, and he/she will tell you that anything south of I-80 might as well be in Nebraska!
Comment by bourgoise pig — July 22, 2008 @ 2:05 pm
excuse me but this is not so hilarious than that map of france from cnn
http://www.forum-auto.com/uploads/200511/tib042_1131484224_sans_titre.gif
You’ve just to compare with a map in google earth
Comment by guigz — August 26, 2008 @ 12:13 pm
I couldn’t get past the misspelling of my home city of “Pittsburgh”.
Comment by Lawrence — September 11, 2008 @ 7:54 pm
It’s almost as if there was a map and an overlay with cities slightly off kilter. Hence the “migration”.
Comment by Torontonian — September 17, 2008 @ 10:01 pm
maybe its just that nobody gives a fuck about america
Comment by simdogg86 — October 3, 2008 @ 1:19 am
wow. the european posters on this blog have really thin skin. chill the F out, srsly.
Comment by lostalex — March 24, 2009 @ 1:01 pm
thank you
Comment by Tony — May 4, 2009 @ 3:43 am
thanks for this map
good
luck
…
Comment by Solomon — May 11, 2009 @ 8:55 am
thanks for this map
good
luck
….
Comment by Solomon — May 11, 2009 @ 8:56 am
merci
Comment by aspicco . — May 17, 2009 @ 6:41 am
Vielen Dank
Comment by moon — July 3, 2009 @ 5:16 am
Muchas gracias
Comment by sun — July 4, 2009 @ 7:40 am
The city names are placed so as to not overlap with ecah other, this is a common cartographic technique when actual locational accuracy is not of the upmost importance.
Comment by Gareth — July 26, 2009 @ 9:31 pm
I hope someone got fired for this.
Comment by Chase — July 30, 2009 @ 12:35 am