AUG 1 From Bloomberg:From Sea to Shining Sea: How the U.S. Uses Its Land

It's August, so you're either in the middle of a road trip or, in our case, jealously following your friend's RV adventure on Instagram (sweet Banff pics, Chandler).

But have you ever thought about how the forests, cities, and farms you're driving through contribute to the economy?

The Van Goghs on Bloomberg's graphics team have. They created 13 maps showing how the contiguous 48 states use 1.9 billion acres of land to create wealth. Here's what we learned:

• Cities are economic powerhouses. While they make up just 3.6% of the contiguous U.S. in terms of land cover, just the top 10 most productive metro areas contributed to ~40% of U.S. GDP in 2016.

• Cropland takes up about 20% of the landmass...but for the most part, it's not feeding you. So, who's it feeding?

• The United States of Cows: 41% of the contiguous U.S. is used in the service of livestock.

• Let's talk timber: Weyerhaeuser, the country's largest private owner of timberlands, controls an area almost the size of West Virginia.