5/23/2011 Mapping the beaches of Essex County

The weather is warm, and summer is coming! I want to, in Google Maps or Google Earth, soar (Navigate/Pan Through Points) from beach-to-beach on the North Shore of Boston, going from Joseph’s Beach down in Nahant up to Salisbury Beach in Salisbury. I LOVE that in Google Maps, when you specify a "nearby" place, the map just slides over to the new location (there is no jerky/jumping/redrawing).

A Google search of “beaches Essex County, MA” results in the MA HomeTownLocator page, with a list of the beaches in Essex County:

Clicking on a beach’s Name takes you to specific Maps, Driving Directions & Local Area Information for that beach:

Open a new spreadsheet, type in the beach names, and, for each beach, its Latitude and Longitude:

Since the Essex County coastline runs nearly vertical (except around Gloucester/Rockport/Essex), sort the file by ascending Latitude:

There are a few ways to work with maps online; for the "Navigate/Pan Through Points"-aspect that I want, I like to use map a list:

Map A List uses Google Spreadsheets for its data, so open your Google Docs account copy your spreadsheet into a new Google Spreadsheet, and save it. Open an account in Map A List, link to your Google Spreadsheet, tickle your default zoom up to 12, and View it:

Click the Navigate (airplane) icon at the bottom, and your map goes from beach-to-beach! (unfortunately, it looks like it does a random path through the points, which isn't what I had in mind. But I have an email into their help desk, so we will see what develops.)
Here is a link to the interactive map:
interactive map