Edmonds From The Air

For this week's history article, we're taking a virtual flight over Edmonds in an airborne time machine. So grab your camera, buckle up, and join us for a flight through history.

But first let's go to "ground school" for some background on this very special branch of photography.

No sooner had it become possible to capture images photographically than photographers sought new perspectives from which to view the world. Humans had always longed to fly like the birds, and early photographers used kites and hot air balloons to provide a view of the world that was previously impossible.

But in these early days of “wet plate” photography, the process was incredibly complicated. The plates needed to be prepared and sensitized, and the entire process from preparation to development of the image needed to be accomplished within 20 minutes. The plates could not dry out at any time during the process. When used for aerial photography a darkroom and all gear, including a supply of water, had to be fitted into the basket of a balloon.

The first aerial photo was taken of the French village Petit-Becetre by pioneering balloonist and photographer Gaspard-Felix Tournachon (aka "Nadar") in 1858. Sadly, that first image has been lost. His balloon was outfitted with a full photography lab, but the weight of all this gear made staying aloft extremely difficult. Despite this, Nadar went on to capture the first images of Paris from a balloon in 1868. The earliest existing aerial photo was captured by James Wallace Black from a balloon tethered over Boston (see accompanying photos).

With the advent of heavier-than-air flight in 1903, airplanes became the new platform for aerial photograpy. The science of photography had also progressed, and relatively light-weight cameras using photographic film were easy to take aloft. And the darkroom could now be left on the ground!

The first aerial photo of Edmonds was taken in 1936 from an airplane by an unknown photographer. By today's standards, Edmonds appears sparsely populated and, aside from the , almost rural. The are still busy and the mainstay of the local economy.

Subsequent photos show Edmonds moving away from its industrial roots toward the mixed residential-business community of today. The last vestiges of industry are still present in the 1953 photos, but are gone in the ones that follow. The population is growing, as reflected by the increased housing density.

The final photos are satellite images of Edmonds today. First used decades ago by governmental agencies and the military, satellite images have now all but replaced tranditional aerial photos for visual documentation of large land areas. Today's satellite images are incredibly detailed and are universally available on the internet through Google Maps, Google Earth, and other sources.

If you haven't done so yet, go to Google Maps or Google Earth and find your house. You'll see details like your outdoor furniture, your car in the driveway, and your dog in the yard.

We've come a long way from a full darkroom suspended from a hot air balloon.