Ground Overlays

  • This example demonstrates how to overlay an image on a map using the GroundOverlay object in the Google Maps JavaScript API.

  • It uses an antique map of Newark, NJ as the overlay image, defining its boundaries with latitude and longitude coordinates.

  • The code provides examples in both JavaScript and TypeScript, illustrating how to create and display the ground overlay.

  • The HTML structure includes a div for the map and links to the necessary CSS and JavaScript files for styling and functionality.

  • To run the sample locally, Git and Node.js are required, with provided instructions for cloning the repository and starting the application.

This example creates a ground overlay on top of a map.

Read the documentation.

TypeScript

// This example uses a GroundOverlay to place an image on the map
// showing an antique map of Newark, NJ.

let historicalOverlay;

function initMap(): void {
  const map = new google.maps.Map(
    document.getElementById("map") as HTMLElement,
    {
      zoom: 13,
      center: { lat: 40.74, lng: -74.18 },
    }
  );

  const imageBounds = {
    north: 40.773941,
    south: 40.712216,
    east: -74.12544,
    west: -74.22655,
  };

  historicalOverlay = new google.maps.GroundOverlay(
    "https://storage.googleapis.com/geo-devrel-public-buckets/newark_nj_1922-661x516.jpeg",
    imageBounds
  );
  historicalOverlay.setMap(map);
}

declare global {
  interface Window {
    initMap: () => void;
  }
}
window.initMap = initMap;
index.ts

JavaScript

// This example uses a GroundOverlay to place an image on the map
// showing an antique map of Newark, NJ.
let historicalOverlay;

function initMap() {
  const map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map"), {
    zoom: 13,
    center: { lat: 40.74, lng: -74.18 },
  });
  const imageBounds = {
    north: 40.773941,
    south: 40.712216,
    east: -74.12544,
    west: -74.22655,
  };

  historicalOverlay = new google.maps.GroundOverlay(
    "https://storage.googleapis.com/geo-devrel-public-buckets/newark_nj_1922-661x516.jpeg",
    imageBounds,
  );
  historicalOverlay.setMap(map);
}

window.initMap = initMap;
index.js

CSS

/* 
 * Always set the map height explicitly to define the size of the div element
 * that contains the map. 
 */
#map {
  height: 100%;
}

/* 
 * Optional: Makes the sample page fill the window. 
 */
html,
body {
  height: 100%;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
}

style.css

HTML

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Ground Overlays</title>

    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./style.css" />
    <script type="module" src="./index.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="map"></div>

    <!-- 
      The `defer` attribute causes the script to execute after the full HTML
      document has been parsed. For non-blocking uses, avoiding race conditions,
      and consistent behavior across browsers, consider loading using Promises. See
      https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/load-maps-js-api
      for more information.
      -->
    <script
      src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=AIzaSyB41DRUbKWJHPxaFjMAwdrzWzbVKartNGg&callback=initMap&v=weekly"
      defer
    ></script>
  </body>
</html>
index.html

Try Sample

Clone Sample

Git and Node.js are required to run this sample locally. Follow these instructions to install Node.js and NPM. The following commands clone, install dependencies and start the sample application. 

  git clone -b sample-groundoverlay-simple https://github.com/googlemaps/js-samples.git
  cd js-samples
  npm i
  npm start

Other samples can be tried by switching to any branch beginning with sample-SAMPLE_NAME. 

  git checkout sample-SAMPLE_NAME
  npm i
  npm start