What I’ve learned from dams on Google Maps

“Would you like to play a game?” I asked my friend.

I handed him my iPad, opened the Google Maps app, and instructed him to find as many dams as he could in one minute, without using the search bar.

Soon he was scrolling through landscapes blindly, zooming in occasionally with a sense of heightened interest, only to zoom back out and continue scrolling. Before the minute was up, he had found a dam. As we continued to explore, we noticed different types of dams in different geographic contexts. Some were tall and sturdy-looking…