Even a bird’s eye can’t get a view like this.
A stunning new photo from atop 1 World Trade Center offers a panoramic look at New York City unlike anything ever seen before.
The 360-degree image — an exclusive to help launch Time magazine’s newly redesigned Web site Thursday — was created using more than 1,000 digital snapshots from the antenna mast of the nation’s tallest skyscraper.
The high-resolution online version will also let users pan across the picture and zoom in with amazing depth and clarity on landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty and George Washington Bridge.
The individual shots that make up the remarkable photo were taken every four seconds over three hours on Sept. 28, then stitched together using computer software developed by GigaPan Systems of Portland, Ore.
Because the skyscraper’s mast sways as much as 6 inches in the wind, GigaPan also custom-designed a 13-foot boom to dampen the movement to within 1/100th of an inch and allow the camera to capture its images clearly.
According to GigaPan, the software and camera mounts are based on the same technology used by NASA’s Mars rovers.
The photo will also grace a wraparound Time magazine cover (right) that hits newsstands Friday.