The
Topography/Mapping the Shoreline Collection contains
over 40 images of plane table mapping of the shoreline. The plane
table was introduced to the United States by Ferdinand Hassler, the
first Superintendent of the Coast Survey. After beginning the shoreline
mapping of the United States in 1834, the work progressed rapidly
and within 100 years virtually all of the United States shoreline,
with the exception of much of Alaska, had been mapped at least once
by a Coast and Geodetic Survey topographic mapping crew. The detail
of this mapping was sometimes incredible leading to criticism of the
work as too costly. However, today the over 10,000 topographic maps
produced by early Coast Survey topographers are the only scientific
view that environmental scientists have of the extent of early wetlands,
estuaries, and shoreline configurations. The topographic surveys also
contain a record of the urban development of the coastline, particularly
in areas of repeat surveys. Plane table mapping was replaced by aerial
photography over a 25-year period beginning during World War I. The
Coast and Geodetic Survey was among the leaders of the many agencies
involved in the early development of aerial photography, or photogrammetry
as it became termed when used as a mapping method.
