You’ve used Google’s Street View to navigate unfamiliar cities. Now, you can use it to explore a river. Today, Google, in partnership with American Rivers, is launching the Colorado River Street View. The imagery features the iconic Grand Canyon — 286 miles of the river, from Lee’s Ferry to Pearce Ferry. It marks the first time Google has used the Street View technology on a river in the U.S.
Eighteen months after Google entered the Grand Canyon to capture panoramic imagery for Street View, the Internet giant has teamed up with American Rivers to ride the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon and capture even more impressive views. Though this certainly boosts Google’s arsenal of imagery on Street View, it seems part of this move involves promoting the fact the Colorado River as ‘endangered’, which is a problem given that it’s the source of irrigation and drinking water for millions. Indeed, as Chris Williams, Senior VP of Conservation at American Rivers notes: “By the time it reaches the Gulf of California in Mexico, the river is barely a trickle—a ghost of its once magnificent self.”