The Cellar - June 25th, 2017: Zero Milestone

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June 25th, 2017: Zero Milestone

Another silly idea from congress.

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The Zero Milestone is a zero mile marker monument in Washington, D.C. intended as the initial milestone from which all road distances in the United States should be reckoned when it was built. At present, only roads in the Washington, D.C. area have distances measured from it.

http://cellar.org/2017/Zeropost-1923.jpg

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In his plan for Washington, Pierre Charles L'Enfant intended a column to be placed 1 mile east of the Capitol, of which is now Lincoln Park, "from which all distances of places through the continent were to be calculated." Instead, in 1804, the Jefferson Stone or Jefferson Pier was placed on the meridian of the White House due west of the Capitol (119 m WNW of the center of the Washington Monument) to mark the Washington meridian, 77° 02' 12.0".
The current Zero Milestone monument was conceived by Good Roads Movement advocate Dr. S. M. Johnson, formally proposed on June 7, 1919. He was inspired by ancient Rome's Golden Milestone located in the Forum. On July 7, 1919, a temporary marker for the Zero Milestone was dedicated on the Ellipse south of the White House during ceremonies launching the Army's first attempt to send a convoy of military vehicles across the country to San Francisco, California. On June 5, 1920, Congress authorized the Secretary of War to erect the current monument, design to be approved by the Commission of Fine Arts and installed at no expense to the government. Dr. Johnson took charge of the details and raised donations for the design and construction. The permanent Zero Milestone was dedicated in a ceremony on June 4, 1923.

The monument has engravings on four surfaces:
North: ZERO MILESTONE
East: STARTING POINT OF SECOND TRANSCONTINENTAL MOTOR CONVOY OVER THE BANKHEAD HIGHWAY, JUNE 14, 1920
South: POINT FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF DISTANCES FROM WASHINGTON ON HIGHWAYS OF THE UNITED STATES
West: STARTING POINT OF FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL MOTOR CONVOY OVER THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY, JULY 7, 1919
In addition, a "brass plate placed on the ground at the north base" shown below, contains the following inscription.
THE U.S. COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY DETERMINED THE LATITUDE, LONGITUDE AND ELEVATION OF THE ZERO MILESTONE AUTHORIZED BY ACT OF CONGRESS JUNE 5, 1920 DEDICATED JUNE 4, 1923

The Bankhead highway down through Texas to San Diego starts on the EAST side not the South?
Mileage markers all over the country measured from the SOUTH side not the West?
Eisenhower's trip over the Lincoln Highway which ran from NYC to 'Frisco starts on the WEST side, not the North?
Waiter, I'll have what they're having, please.

link

In the 1920s the American highway & freeway system was nothing like we've grown used to a hundred years later. Hawaii was still decades from statehood, although Missouri and such were no longer still considered the Wild West. Back in the 20s, they probably thought places like LA, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle were going to remain provincial mudholes.

Took me until my early 30s to figure out how we number our highway exits--the whole "numbers go up as you go north on odd-numbered roads like Interstate 5, east on even-numbered roads like Interstates 2, 84, and 90."

And "what they're having" was probably either boiled (solid food) or strained through the nearest available cloth of the right weave (liquids). Jazz was barely legal, premature babies in incubators were on display at Coney Island, and it was a bit early, iirc from other entries about Americans and travel, for the hardcore promotion of family travel as a hobby. That came with some big freeway improvement act, I think after WW2.

"Took me until my early 30s to figure out how we number our highway exits--the whole "numbers go up as you go north on odd-numbered roads like Interstate 5, east on even-numbered roads like Interstates 2, 84, and 90."

Well I never heard that before, ie 95 (NJTPK) thru NJ goes up in numbers as you go toward the GWB, seems to work

Route 66 here has exit numbers that correspond to the mileage marker they are located at. So exit 12 isn't followed by exit 13. The next exit happens to be exit 21, but you know the distance is nine miles.

(Made this example up.)

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Originally Posted by Snakeadelic (Post 991234)

They knew those cities were important as they had been busy seaports and Navel support for the Pacific Fleet. The problem was you couldn't get there from here, except by boat or rail. We be 'Mericans, having to be subservient to railroad barons and ship captains is unacceptable.
We pledge allegiance to Henry Ford, and to the freedom for which he stands... :lol2:

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And "what they're having" was probably either boiled (solid food) or strained through the nearest available cloth of the right weave (liquids).

I don't care as long as it makes me as detached from reality as these clowns were with this idea.;)

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Originally Posted by glatt (Post 991236)

That's pretty common. One of the short interstates they put in here had numbered exits and the they decided to add an exit.
They had to put up signs, "Exit 9*, formerly exit 5, 1 mile".
*miles :facepalm:

We've travelled fairly extensively through most states, and it seems there's just a few small pockets in the northeast still with freeway exits numbered sequentially rather than by mileage from their origin within the state. British motorway exits are numbered sequentially, so I found it odd at first, but very quickly grew to prefer the by-mileage system because it's so easy to know how far you are from anywhere. I also got used to the house numbering system, although I don't find as much need for that. (The more digits you have, the further away you are from the center of the city, your next-door-neighbor will typically have a house number at least 4 higher than yours, in case plots are split and more houses added.... but there are so many exceptions I find it pretty meaningless now. e.g. new cutesy neighborhoods being build in cornfields miles out of town are getting houses with 1 & 2 digit numbers instead of 5 or 6 because it's more attractive to prospective buyers....)

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Originally Posted by glatt

Around here they are by mile marker, except we have lots of places where there is more than one exit per mile, in which case they become exit 223A, 223B, 223C...

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Originally Posted by Clodfobble (Post 991255)

Around here they are by mile marker, except we have lots of places where there is more than one exit per mile, in which case they become exit 223A, 223B, 223C...

Likewise here. Furthermore, the mileage is measured from the state line at the southern border for North South freeways and from the eastern border on east west freeways. The A B C etc, sub-divisions are in alphabetical order traveling north or traveling east, and in reverse alphabetical order when traveling south or traveling west.

Makes sense on the interstate, since they're federal highways.