All I am trying to do, is find a friggin elevation map, of select
cities and towns of the USA, for free. Forget the USGS, I searched and
searched and what a stupid, moronic search engine. The same for the
state of NJ. All I want is the elevation, of the watchung mountains,
in the watchung reservation, in (where else?) watchung nj. Watchung nj
07069, located in union county nj. I searched every friggin page for
union county, watchung. THERE ARE NOT ANY LISTINGS FOR ELEVATIONS
ANYWHERE, IS THIS CLASSIFIED MATERIAL, THE ELEVATIONS OF THE TOWNS AND
CITIES OF THE USA? SOMEONE IS GOING TO LAUNCH AN ATTACK ON THE USA
BASED ON ELEVATIONS? I THINK NOT. Am I upset, youbetcha'. Should I
contact NASA, maybe they have the information, someone must have it,
because it is not available to the general public.

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Request for Question Clarification by leli-ga on 25 Apr 2003 03:16 PDT

Hi stockzguy

Sorry to hear it's upset you!

If "All [you] want is the elevation, of the watchung mountains," I
think we can help you.
Is it enough on its own and not part of a list or map of elevations
throughout the US?

Leli

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Clarification of Question by stockzguy-ga on 25 Apr 2003 03:23 PDT

I really would like a complete topograpical elevation map of cities
and towns throughtout the USA. I live on the Watchung mountain. I
don't want to spend $100-300 for a GPS with an altitude indicator. I
especially do not want to spend a lot of money to the us.gov for
"free" information, that is public record, of the elevations of
cities, towns, counties, highest mountains, coastal, etc.The usgs did
those surveys years ago, I remember that all you needed to do was send
in a return envelope (stamped) and they would supply the town's
elevations. What happened? That's what is really making me mad.

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Clarification of Question by stockzguy-ga on 25 Apr 2003 03:30 PDT

If I wanted to move to another state and build a new home, like South
Carolina, and I was planning build that home on a mountain, I would
want to know what the elevation is, as many factors are affected by
elevation, especially the weather. Could I not find a simple elevation
of a town in South Carolina? C'mon this is getting absurd.

Hello - hopefully this will help to assuage your anger - there are
many resources which provide the USGS topographical data on the web -
some are even free!

Topozone.com seems to allow you to specify a town anywhere in the US
and gives you topographical maps of that area at 1:25,000, 1:50,000,
1:100,000, or 1:200,000 scale.  The listing for Watchung, NJ is 181
feet, but, I assume that that is for the town of Watchung - the
surrounding elevations need to be read from the topographical lines on
the map (quick eyeballing seems to suggest between 500 - 800 feet for
most of the surrounding heights).

The general link is (try a place name search): 
http://www.topozone.com/default.asp

and the link to Watchung at 1:25,000 - 
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=18&n=4498483&e=546391&s=25

they also make and sell custom maps:
http://www.topozone.com/factory/noserial.asp?dest=factory.asp&lat=40.6377927356441&lon=-74.4514010938305&s=25

Maptech.com also allows one to search topographical maps of various
areas.  Their main page:

The listing of sites matching "Watchun, NJ":
http://mapserver.maptech.com/homepage/index.cfm?BPID=MAP0060030900&scriptfile=http://mapserver.maptech.com/homepage/index.cfm&serv_ip=mapserver.maptech.com/api/api_mapserver&searchscope=dom

And their maps of "first Watchung mountain summit" 1:24,000:
http://mapserver.maptech.com/homepage/index.cfm?lat=40.57917&lon=-74.56639&scale=25000&type=1&zoom=100&bpid=MAP0060030900&latlontype=DMS&searchscope=dom

And "second Watchung mountain summit" 1:24,000:
http://mapserver.maptech.com/homepage/index.cfm?lat=40.60333&lon=-74.55028&scale=25000&type=1&zoom=100&bpid=MAP0060030900&latlontype=DMS&searchscope=dom

MSN also has a topographic map server called Terra which seems to link
to the same USGS data.

The general link:
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/default.aspx

And the link for Watchung, NJ:
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?t=2&s=14&x=170&y=1405&z=18&w=1&ref=P%7cWatchung%2c+New+Jersey%2c+United+States

The USGS site provides a graphical map selection tool (may be slow on
a slow connection), which allows you to zoom in on an area using your
mouse - maps are printable and downloadable.
http://nmviewer.cr.usgs.gov/MultiService/viewer.htm

They also offer another graphical map tool based upon the "National
Atlas" which allows you to zoom in on a feature by searching for it
from drop-down menus on the right of the screen (internal links not
available for reference):
http://nationalatlas.gov/natlas/NatlasStart.asp


Additional sites of more limited value

NOAA has large scale topo maps of the whole country, not likely useful
for what you want, but somewhat pretty:
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/topo/state.shtml

MapQuest allows one to see aerial photos of an area (centered on
Watchung, NJ):
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?dtype=a&mapdata=cbPRZSKSHGQQpzD8u%2fDCONnJ627oGGjfxL3qODawFms7lwPPY3dYaGQIQtfrkfPAbIHJ6ACc3FR8xvyIW0Xy2rzA2LmlDYGJjI8tF0mc%2bn8OJWZjTZv4uLew68tNQU2FevqkPwTpudEiLP1%2fOB0hv3%2fG3bQ6P8GgI7KZp5wLtwYs2LJU0Hwux7qW%2fQ1VbLbQPD1NXiBV%2b3hfrMrkfbRC%2fg%2bBrxdK06xVAPMivh%2biQ2UK2T7yL0qfVp4iPJKBOxtSLqAAtspmoUmYP%2fUWDoX19MyxKAsVSZX8



Please let me know if you need any further information.

synarchy

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Clarification of Answer by synarchy-ga on 25 Apr 2003 07:06 PDT

Oops - I forgot to include my search strategy.

Google searchs - us topographical map, us topographical map terra

thankzz  syn. I knew that the info was available, free, great work.