The wall comes down:

(Via The Valleywag)

Hope and change has come to Google Maps. The official residence of the vice president, obscured until Dick Cheney's last days in office and residence, now shines in satellite sunlight.

A reader tipped us off that Google Maps now showed a clear overhead image of One Observatory Circle (above), the address which has served as the home of the vice president since 1974. It's the first glimpse Google users have gotten of the place.

Kate Hurowitz, a Google spokeswoman, explained in an email:

Google Earth and Maps are regularly updated as new imagery becomes available. Our most recent update, which went live last week, included updated imagery of the Washington D.C. area from several providers. The imagery of the Naval Observatory comes from Digital Globe.

The changeover happened on January 18 in Google Earth, the search engine's 3D mapping service, and on Thursday in Google Maps. In other words, the vice president's house was revealed on Google the same week Cheney moved out and Joe Biden moved in.

What can you say?