Geographic Name Information Service (GNIS)

  • GNIS is a freely downloadable gazetteer of places in the USA.
  • Includes lat, long, county name, and the following features:
airport, arch, area, arroyo, bar, basin, bay, beach, bench, bend, bridge, building, canal, cape, cemetery, channel, church, civil, cliff, crater, crossing, dam, falls, flat, forest, gap, geyser, glacier, gut, harbor, hospital, island, isthmus, lake, lava, levee, locale, military, mine, oilfield, other, park, pillar, plain, range, rapids, reserve, reservoir, ridge, school, sea, slope, spring, stream, summit, swamp, tower, trail, tunnel, valley, well, woods
  • One can very easily make a REST-ful web service out of this!
  • For places outside the US, try the GEOnet Names Server at http://earth-info.nima.mil/gns/html/
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