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Visualizing 200 Years of Urban Sprawl in Paris, São Paulo, and L.A.
New animations show centuries of expansion in three global cities.
Two centuries ago, Paris, a city with a population of half a million, barely extended beyond its medieval footprint. São Paulo was still largely a small trading outpost for gold and exploration expeditions. And Los Angeles was just a pueblo of a few dozen buildings.
Over the next 200 years, and accelerating rapidly during the second half of the twentieth century, this would all change. Today, the Paris metropolitan area sprawls out over more than 6,600 square miles, metropolitan São Paulo over more than 3,000 square miles, and metro L.A. over nearly 4,900 square miles.