There was a pretty decent series a few years ago called America: The Story of Us. One of the things I really enjoyed was a special effect like you were flying West at 40,000 feet watching county after county and state after state infill. It brought home the enormity of the population movement involved to settle this country.
Your description reminds me of the surround-360-degree video at Disneyland called “America the Beautiful”. The video showed the country from a low flight over America from sea to sea. It was pretty neat.