relative to NAD 83, an Earth-centered ellipsoid of revolution with dimensions chosen to best fit the undulating (±100 m)geoid (world-wide mean sea level).
NAD83 longitude of the Capitol is about 1.1 arc seconds less than its NAD27 longitude; astronomic longitude there is about 4 arc seconds less than NAD83.
Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant specified the firstmeridian in his 1791 "Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of the United States . . ." (see:L'Enfant Plan).[1][2][3] (Shortly after L'Enfant prepared this plan, its subject received the name "City of Washington".) His plan stated near its right side that the longitude of the Congress house, now called the Capitol, was0,0°.[2]
L'Enfant's plan contained the following explanatory note:
In order to execute the above plan,Mr. Ellicott drew a true meridian line by celestial observation, which passes through the area intended for the Congress-House; this line he crossed by another line due east and west and which passes through the same area. These lines were accurately measured, and made the basis on which the whole plan was executed. He ran all the lines by atransit instrument, and determined theacute angles by actual measurement, and left nothing to the uncertainty of the compass.[2]
The longitude of the center of the Capitol's dome (completed in 1863 during theCivil War) is now given by theNational Geodetic Survey as77°00′32.6″W (NAD 83).
West side of Jefferson Pier in April 2011 with Washington Monument in background.Zero Milestone, 1923, looking north toward the White House.
L'Enfant planned Washington around aright triangle, having its 90° vertex at an equestrian statue ofGeorge Washington, its eastern vertex at the "Congress house" and its northern vertex at the President's House, now named the "White House".[4] (This would place L'Enfant's statue 0.36 meters (1 ft 2 in) north of the latitude of the Capitol.)
The west side of L'Enfant's triangle forms a natural prime meridian passing through the center of the President's house. The following ten features on and near this "Washington Meridian" are listed from south to north:
TheJefferson Pier. In 1793Secretary of StateThomas Jefferson surveyed and marked with a wooden post the southwest vertex of L'Enfant's triangle, establishing the second Washington meridian, the one through the President's house. The wooden post was replaced by theJefferson Pier in 1804, while Jefferson wasPresident of the United States. After removal and replacement several times, it was permanently replaced in 1889 by a 2-foot-square (0.6 m), 2-foot-tall, granite pier, now 390 feet (119 m) WNW of the center of theWashington Monument.[6] NGS gives its longitude as77°02′11.56258″W (NAD 83) as of 2002[update] (likely error less than a centimeter). Azimuth to the Capitol is 89.98 degrees, a discrepancy of just under a meter.
TheMeridian Stone. Set In 1890 at the center of theEllipse, it was intended to be on the same meridian.[8] It is an 18-inch-square (46 cm) granite post set flush with the ground. NGS gives its longitude as77°02′11.55880″W (NAD 83) as of 2002[update] (likely error less than a centimeter).
TheZero Milestone. Set in 1923 on the north side of the Ellipse, it was intended to be on the same meridian and to be the zero mileage point for all United States roads (but never was).[9] It is a granite pillar about 18 inches (46 cm) square and about 3.5 feet (1.1 m) tall. NGS gives its longitude as77°02′11.57375″W (NAD 83) as of 2002[update] (likely error less than two centimeters).
Tablet facing 16th Street, NW, on west wall of Meridian Hill Park in 2006. The tablet states that a Washington Meridian marker stone was formerly located 52 feet 9 inches (16.1 m) west of the tablet.
16th Street Northwest, which extends due north from the White House.[12] The meridian is sometimes identified as the "16th Street Meridian" because of the location of this street.
Meridian Hill. In 1804, a small freestone obelisk was placed at the crest of a hill, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of the President's House. The marker, which no longer exists, was at the northern end of 16th Street, just north ofFlorida Avenue, before 16th Street was extended northward about 1890,[13] covering it up. The park along the east side of 16th Street where the obelisk once stood still bears the name Meridian Hill Park.
Entrance marker stone near Silver Spring in traffic circle (Blair Circle) in December 2011
Meridian four blocks north of Old Naval Observatory, looking south in August 2005.[15]
The third meridian was defined on September 28, 1850, byCongress: "[T]he meridian of the observatory at Washington shall be adopted and used as the American meridian for all astronomical purposes and ... the meridian of Greenwich shall be adopted for all nautical purposes."[16] The observatory decided that this meridian passed through the center of the original (small) dome atop the main building of theOld Naval Observatory, now abandoned southwest of the corner of E and 23rd Streets inFoggy Bottom (north of theLincoln Memorial and west of the White House). The observatory adopted77°2′48.0″W for its meridian in theAmerican Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac for the years 1855 to 1869 (as5h8m11.2s). In 1897, well after the observatory closed in 1892, the Coast and Geodetic Survey reported that its meridian was77°3′2.3″ west of Greenwich,[17] which was quoted for the next 50 years in the list of observatories in theAlmanac (as5h8m12.15s). When referred to later datums, this meridian has been variously specified as77°3′6.119″W or77°3′6.276″W (both presumably NAD 27). If NAD27, the latter would be77°3′5.194″W (NAD 83) which seems to be within a few meters of the actual longitude, at worst. This meridian was repealed by Congress on August 22, 1912, to allow the Greenwich meridian to become the legal prime meridian of the United States.
Many western states have borders that are meridians of "longitude west of Washington", that is, west of the legal 1850 meridian through the Old Naval Observatory. However, their present boundaries follow the subsequently surveyed boundary, even when inaccurately marked a few miles (kilometers) east or west of the meridian in the statute. Other western states have meridians relative to Greenwich (Alaska,California,Oklahoma,Texas) or relative to a river or lake (Arkansas,Louisiana,Minnesota,Missouri,Oregon,Washington state).
The following meridians west of Washington are listed east to west, along with the appropriate boundary of the present state. The date of the meridian's definition is in parentheses (all in the 1860s). All states were territories of the same name when their meridians were specified except as noted. States without dates have boundaries dependent on the neighboring state with a date listed immediately above it.
The fourth meridian was through the clock room of the new Naval Observatory, 2.3 mi (3.7 km) northwest of the White House, at77°3′56.7″W (1897) or77°4′2.24″W (NAD 27) or77°4′1.16″W (NAD 83). The clock room is a small building at the exact center of the 1,000 ft (300 m) radius observatory grounds, whose northern entrance is at 34th Street and Massachusetts Avenue. It was used in theAlmanac for the years 1898–1950 as the independent variable of time for a few tables (even though Washington's civil time since 1883 had been that of the standard time zone GMT−5 hours (75°W)).
^(1)Freedom Plaza in Northwest Washington contains an inlay of L'Enfant's Plan with a legend identifying the longitude of the Congress house as0,0°. (2) L'Enfant identified himself as "Peter Charles L'Enfant" during most of his life, while residing in the United States. He wrote this name on his"Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of t(he) United States ...." (Washington, D.C.) and on other legal documents. However, during the early 1900s, a French ambassador to the U.S.,Jean Jules Jusserand, poipularized the use of L'Enfant's birth name, "Pierre Charles L'Enfant". (See: Bowling, Kenneth R (2002).Peter Charles L'Enfant: vision, honor, and male friendship in the early American Republic. George Washington University, Washington, D.C.) TheNational Park Service identifies L'Enfant as "Major Peter Charles L'Enfant" and as "Major Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant" on its website. TheUnited States Code states in40 U.S.C.§ 3309: "(a) In General.—The purposes of this chapter shall be carried out in the District of Columbia as nearly as may be practicable in harmony with the plan of Peter Charles L'Enfant."
^California v. Nevada, 44 U.S. 125 (Supreme Court of the United States 1980) ("Nevada's Constitution stated that its boundary would proceed "in a North Westerly direction along [the oblique section of the] Eastern boundary line of the State of California to the forty third degree of Longitude West from Washington [and then] North along said forty third degree of West Longitude, and said Eastern boundary line of the State of California to the forty second degree of North Latitude. ..." Nev.Const., Art. XIV, § 1 (1864). Although it turns out that the 43d degree of longitude west from Washington does not exactly coincide with the 120th meridian west of Greenwich—which was the north-south reference in the California Constitution").
Bedini, Silvio A. (1999).The Jefferson Stone: Demarcation of the First Meridian of the United States. Frederick, MD: Professional Surveyors Publishing Co.
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