"These images of the western portion of the Las Vegas metropolitan area show the city’s steady spread into the adjacent desert landscape. Undeveloped land appears along the left edges of the top two images. Here, the land on the city’s outskirts appears in shades of beige and tan, with just a hint of the street grid to come. By 1989, however, development filled the upper left corner—a residential area, complete with curving roads and semicircle streets. In subsequent images, development spreads southward, and by 2004, the entire image shows cityscape, including Interstate 215 passing through southwestern portion of the city."

Here are some sobering satellite photos of Las Vegas, in five year intervals from 1984 to a few months ago, taken by NASA's Landsat 5. For orientation, the strip runs north-south and with a NNE kink just right of center, with the airport parallel to this at bottom. Interstate 215 can be found in the bottom left corner, taking shape in 1999.Click the animation for larger images.[25 years in six seconds | images from here (via Coudal