USA Topo Not Allowing for Close Zoom-ins

[JohnWright]

We use Geocortex Essentials (now VertiGIS) for our web maps across our company.

Inside our maps, we try to serve up lots of options in our basemaps (aerials, topos, streetmaps, etc.) and within there, we have two Topo maps to choose from.  One is the World Topo and the other is the USA Topo.  We use the REST services provided by ArcGIS Online.

World Topo:

https://server.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services/World_Topo_Map/MapServer

USA Topo:  

https://services.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services/USA_Topo_Maps/MapServer

The world topo zooms in to all of the pre-cached scales down to 1:71, no problem.  The USA Topo, however, is visible at 18,056 but then disappears when going in closer like 9,028, 4,514, 2,257, etc.

The World topo, while having a much cleaner and softer look, lacks the robust contour lines and visible, more frequent elevation label numbers that the USA Topo has.  Our clients need to be able to zoom in close with the USA Topo which contains valuable contour lines and elevation information.  The World Topo does not meet our clients needs at these scales.

Is there a reason ESRI restricts the closest zoom-in on the USA Topo at 18,056?  Is there a way around this?  Even adding just two more scales 9,028 and 4,514 would be good enough.

Here's the Levels of Detail for both services.   I would love to have the USA Topo be visible at closer scales.

World Topo Scales on left. USA Topo Scales on the right.

[BernSzukalski]

Hello John - I'm assuming you mean this service:

https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=99cd5fbd98934028802b4f797c4b1732

If so, you are correct that the USGS Topographic Map Service is not published at all those scales. Honestly, I can't offhand recall the reason why but can check further if you find that important. However, as noted in the item details, the layer is in mature support as of March 2019 and is no longer updated.

A better alternative is to use the USGS Historical Topographic Map Explorer which delivers maps at larger scales.

https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/topoexplorer/index.html

That Living Atlas app provides a way to specify a place of interest, view all available USGS topo maps for that area by date and extent, and (after signing in) save the desired topo map to a web map for further use.

The app is scheduled for a redesign in the future.