I was on Google maps looking at the street views of downtown Saginaw, and in the world of Google, the Plaza Hotel, the Downtown Saginaw Center and other buildings are still standing. I am not sure how often Google updates their maps, but of course there is some delay in updating them and eventually, the places that are gone in reality, will be gone from Google too.

It got me thinking, does google archive the images they have? could I drive around Saginaw from ten years ago on google maps. As it turns out you kinda can. You have to install Google Earth. The program has a history slider which lets you go back thru the archive of photos. Unfortunately it only works in satellite view and not street view, probably because street has note been around that long.

looking at Washington Ave medical district on Google Earth, you can go back to 1998 when Water Street ran along the river all the way from Genesse to the post office and the Mitts and Merrill building was still there, now MCVI and the Garber Building are where Mitts and Merrill used to be. It’s interesting how you can see the improvements along Washington Ave comparing 1998 to 2011.

I am hoping that over the years Google will archive the street view images so in years from now, when we are all flying around in our jet packs and nuclear powered hover cars, you can go back in time and drive around the Saginaw of today.

P.S. now if I can only get my Flux Capacitor from Amazon that’s on backorder.

P.P.S. read some of the reviews for the Flux Capacitor