Explore Western's campus online through Google Street View

A Google team member rides one of the company's Street
View trikes through the Western Washington University
campus on Monday, July 18, 2011.
Photo by Matthew Anderson | WWU

Want to check out Western’s campus without driving to Bellingham? The beauty of the campus is now available to the public via the Google Maps Street View Partner Program, which provides interactive 360-degree ground-level photos of special attractions around the world.

Last summer, the panoramic imagery of Western was collected by Google using a tricycle specially modified to collect photos while pedaled down pathways and pedestrian areas not accessible by the Street View car.

Working with Western, the Google team rode the trike throughout pedestrian-only public paths on campus.

Now, a year later, the imagery of Western’s campus is available via the Street View feature in Google Maps at: http://bit.ly/Q2zNN8

“Western has one of the most beautiful campuses in the country. Google Maps’ 360-degree photos of campus will allow prospective students and other visitors to see our university close-up and to better understand our campus geography before visiting,” said Paul Cocke, director of University Communications and Marketing at Western.

Anyone with an Internet connection and an interest in Western can access the imagery via Google Maps, Google Maps for Mobile and Google Earth. To protect individuals’ privacy, the faces of any pedestrians on campus captured by the cameras were blurred.

Western joins a number of other university campuses, including UCLA, San Diego State, Penn State, University of Pennsylvania and Dartmouth that are participating in the program.

Google Street View, launched in 2007, allows users to explore places near and far in Google Maps and Google Earth. It now covers cities and rural areas in many countries, including the United States, much of Europe, Australia, Japan and others.