Wednesday was GIS Day (part of Geography Awareness Week), and D.C.’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer got in on the fun with the District’s second annual GIS scavenger hunt.
“Are you smarter than D.C. GIS?” an announcement post challenged. “GIS professionals in D.C. government have come up with some interesting questions we hope you will have some fun coming up with answers to. Some are easy, some are mind-benders and some are tricky.”
Over the course of the day the OCTO team tweeted a series of clues — each question, presumably, answerable using District maps and maybe a little math. And boy, did we learn some things about the geography of our fair city — things like the fact that Massachusetts Avenue intersects with the most traffic circles (nine) and you can’t just pop in to the White House to use one of its 35 bathrooms (ok, that one may have been obvious).
But some questions from the scavenger hunt remained unanswered at the end of the day:
- How many times can the bookshelves in the Library of Congress line the perimeter of the District?
- How many elevator entrances are there in the entire WMATA rail system?
Here’s the clue lineup:
Wonders around the world and kinda have one here. Find it for #gisday in #DCGISday game. @opendatadc pic.twitter.com/JVBF8cU9EO
— DC Office of the CTO (@OCTODC) November 16, 2016
House of the Temple! ANC 2B, PD 3, 1733 16th St NW
— courtney claessens (@sidewalkballet) November 16, 2016
Lines and circles we travel. #clue2 for #DCGISday on #gisday… Get it? @opendatadc pic.twitter.com/WVqScyLyUW
— DC Office of the CTO (@OCTODC) November 16, 2016
Nice job @ANCJonah! You got #clue2 correct. Answer: Massachusetts Avenue which intersects 9 traffic circles across DC. #winning #DCGISDay
— DC Office of the CTO (@OCTODC) November 16, 2016
For #DCGISDay #clue3 let's go to the #mlk memorial #gisday2016 @MemFoundation pic.twitter.com/JzXziVeFWZ
— DC Office of the CTO (@OCTODC) November 16, 2016
Answer: #MLK memorial faces the #tidalbasin with #ihaveadream site #lincolnmemorial as a backdrop. Rotate approx 180 degrees to face it.
— DC Office of the CTO (@OCTODC) November 16, 2016
Nature call touring DC, what do you do? #DCGISDay #Clue4 #GeographyAwarenessWeek @gisday pic.twitter.com/UvBYJuCsQv
— DC Office of the CTO (@OCTODC) November 16, 2016
How about a lift today? #DCGISDay #gisday #Clue5 #wmata #opendatadc @wmata pic.twitter.com/RLgUzlNYl7
— DC Office of the CTO (@OCTODC) November 16, 2016
Hey there #geogeeks and #haiku nerds, here's a "Hai-clue" for #DCGISDay #clue6. Guess this DC location to participate in our #gisday quiz. pic.twitter.com/IVH26FAGWG
— DC Office of the CTO (@OCTODC) November 16, 2016
Hello #bookworm! How many times could @librarycongress bookshelves line the perimeter of #DistrictofColumbia? – #DCGISDay #gisday #clue7 pic.twitter.com/6pEoVgSYXc
— DC Office of the CTO (@OCTODC) November 16, 2016
#Clue8 #DCGISDay #gisday #bestpractices #stormwater #RiverSmart #climatereadydc with @DOEE_DC pic.twitter.com/MRUj5KIh4h
— DC Office of the CTO (@OCTODC) November 16, 2016
Where should have supreme court been placed to express symmetry? #DCGISDay #clue9 @nps and @whitehouse @USSupremeCourt pic.twitter.com/VmmtePF7CI
— DC Office of the CTO (@OCTODC) November 16, 2016
Rounding out #DCGISDay with #Clue10. Hint: satellite or aerial maps are your decoder. Happy #gisday y'all! pic.twitter.com/Uqlsi4871y
— DC Office of the CTO (@OCTODC) November 16, 2016
Now here’s our plea — can you help answer the remaining clues?
C’mon GIS enthusiasts, we know you’re out there. The hashtag, for those inclined to brag on Twitter, is #DCGISDay.
Join our growing Slack community
Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!
Donate to the Journalism Fund
Your support powers our independent journalism. Unlike most business-media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational contributions.