About the "US highway endpoint" maps on CommunityWalk.com

The basemap data on CommunityWalk is provided by and served by Google. You navigate around the maps the same way you do with Google maps. (If you're not familiar with how to use these, you can check out the Google Maps tutorial.) The servers occasionally experience slowdowns, so you sometimes have to be a bit patient while these maps load, and unfortunately it's almost futile to try and view these maps with a dialup connection.

In addition to the features found on Google Maps, CommunityWalk has a few extras. On the left-hand side of your screen, below the map title, there are some links that allow you to quickly jump to the corresponding map for any adjacent state. Below that is a list of markers. On my maps, this will be a list of all locations in that state where a US highway ends (or once ended):

Example of "Markers" list

These are listed numerically by highway number... except "common" endpoints appear at the top of the list (that's my term for locations that serve [or once served] as an endpoint for more than one US route). So if you're looking for a particular highway and you don't see it listed numerically, check the top of the list to see if its endpoint is shared with another highway.

If you mouse over a location in the list, a small label will appear at the corresponding location on the map. Likewise, if you mouse over a marker on the map, that same small label will appear, identifying what that marker represents. On some maps you may notice that I've drawn in some paths (transparent lines traced over top of roads, done when I feel it would help to clarify the route in question). If you mouse over a path, a small label will appear, identifying what that path represents. If you click on a location (either a marker on the map or a location in the marker list), a description box will pop up above the marker. In that box, the "title" of the marker is a link that will take you to my corresponding webpage that contains photos and a text description of that endpoint. Also, when you have a marker "selected" like that, you can quickly zoom closer to that particular location by clicking the zoom bar in the upper left portion of the map (it will zoom you in towards the selected marker, as opposed to just zooming in towards the center of the map).

Another extra feature is the Legend palette, found in the upper right-hand corner of your screen. This provides a handy reference for what the different marker colors represent. Basically, the idea is that current endpoints are marked with bolder colors, while historic endpoints are shown with faded colors.

Example of "Legend" palette

Another way you might find the Legend palette useful is by turning off any endpoint categories that you're not interested in. For example, if you only want to view current endpoints, then turn off the historic categories. Or if you want to know what endpoints still need to be photographed, then turn off all categories except the red one ("Need photos"). A quick way to do this is to simply click on the text "Need photos". That causes all markers except the red ones to disappear.

The Legend palette can also be useful in working around one of the limitations inherent in mapping things out this way: some markers are hidden behind other markers when you're zoomed out to a smaller scale. In an area congested with markers, turning off some layers might be helpful. But in some cases, even that doesn't work. So the best way to make sure you're seeing every marker in a particular region is to zoom in closely to your area of interest. If you're close enough to make out individual local roads, then you're close enough to differentiate all endpoint markers.

There may well be errors and/or omissions on these maps. Keep in mind, I have no control over the road network that gets displayed - as I've said, that data is provided by Google. There are instances where the route shields on the basemap conflict with what I've marked as a route's endpoint. In most cases, you can trust the markers that I've placed, and disregard the labels on the basemap. However, I do make mistakes sometimes... and besides that, routes can also change. So if you find any of my markers that should be changed - or markers that should be added, or info that's incorrect - please contact me.

This page has a clickable map that serves as the main index for this series of state endpoint maps.