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Historic Landmarks of Northeast Ohio

GIS Help

When you click on "Sophisticated GIS Map" on the Historic Landmarks of Northeast Ohio page, you will be taken to a Geographic Information System (GIS) map of the region, which shows the locations of the structures we are currently offering (bridges) in red. You will need to zoom in on the bridge you wish to know more about and follow a series of steps to access the information

  1. You'll note in the upper right hand corner a double column of graphical icons, representing different functions the cursor will perform, depending upon which one you select. It opens in the zoom-in mode. Position your cursor immediately above and to the left of the mouth of the Cuyahoga and, while holding the left hand mouse button down, roll the cursor down and to the right to encompass a few of those red blobs, then release the button. You'll note that while you were doing this, a frame was opening and expanding, signifying the boundaries of the zoom box you were selecting and that's the view it provides you when the map re-draws. Actually, you may want to do it a couple of times, to zoom in to just the first few bridges over the river (what the red shapes represent).
  2. Now go up to that collection of icons in the upper left and click on the one that's a black circle with a white letter "i" in the center. That makes your cursor a query tool.
  3. Go over the the right had column and click on the second column of white spots, next to the entry "Historic Bridges, Large Scale," which tells the GIS that you want to ask a question about the data layer pertaining to bridges. This GIS is like a stack of acetate sheets, each having a map displaying different kinds of information (streets, or buildings, or parcels, or names of streets, etc.) and you're making "Active" the particular layer you want to ask a question about, namely the layer of bridges.
  4. Now click on the red shape for the Detroit-Superior Bridge. That should open a small horizontal window across the bottom of the screen. If not, do it a couple of times until it does open. This is the record in the GIS database that's attached to the red shape for that bridge. Every such red shape has a database record associated with it, running in the background, and you've called this one forward.
  5. On that displayed record, you should see an address (a URL). Scroll over if it's not visible. Click on it when you find it.
  6. That causes you to leave the NODIS web server and come over to the library's web server, where more stuff will happen. I should mention that what's happened so far is that you've used a GIS map to select a location -- in this case a river crossing -- where there's a structure you want to know more about. You've made a geographic selection.
  7. Now you need to make a chronological one, as there may've been more structures at that location over time and clarifying which you meant is necessary. The new window that you opened when you clicked on the URL lists all the structures at that location that we know about, in this case there's just the one. Click on "More Information" link for the current structure, the Detroit-Superior.
  8. Now you'll see a new page open, that has a column of choices on the left, each representing a different type of information. "Text" will lead you to our Scholar catalog for a list of books we hold about that bridge (and from there you can click on "OhioLINK" to see what works other Ohio universities may have). "Images" takes you to our CONTENTdm image database in Cleveland Memory.