Speaking of maps, here's a really interesting one I found on Paleo-Future.com, a cool blog about now-dated visions of the future. The map is from a feature called Closer Than We Think, a series of illustrations that ran in the several U.S. newspapers in the late 50s and early 60s.
The Super-Metropolis Map of 1975 was one edition that ran in 1961. It shows a projected map of the United States as it would appear 14 years into the future.
The map predicts that larger urban cores would morph into "super-metropolises" -- "regional cities" that are "nearly continuous complexes of homes, business centers, factories, shops and service places." It's a pretty spot-on prediction, of course (although I'm not sure you could make the argument that that actually happened by 1975).
Some of the predicted super-metropolis locales are pretty prescient as well -- especially Phoenix and a pre-Disney Central Florida.
But the map is way off on a couple other predictions -- a metropolis around Tulsa? A strip of mega development around Chattanooga? An urban center in the Mississippi Delta?
And this:
They will be saved from traffic self-suffication by high speed transportation -- perhaps monorails that provide luxurious non-stop service between the inner centers of the supercities as well as links between the super-metropolises themselves.
Yeah...not so much.
Zach Patton -- Executive Editor. Zach has written about a range of topics, including social policy issues and urban planning and design. Originally from Tennessee, he joined GOVERNING as a staff writer in 2004. He received the 2011 Jesse H. Neal Award for Outstanding Journalism
E-mail: zpatton@governing.com 
Written and compiled by staff writers and editors, GOVERNING View is an on-the-ground, and sometimes behind-the-scenes, look at the topics we're covering in print and online. From notes on what's up in statehouses, county courthouses and city halls, to encounters with people, places and things, GOVERNING View is a window into the side of state and local government you don't always see.
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