seems right yet again
here in our own first state also
from the 17th or 18th century til the present
the new castle county court house spire has been the designated center point
of perhaps the first 12 mile limits boundary in history
tho to tell the truth these particular 12 miles were more statute & dry
land than nautical
& this spire being not very high offered only a very limited view
nor is it easy to even see the building on a hazy day
http://www.ci.new-castle.de.us/visitors/vb_images/courthouse2.jpg
nevertheless it is probably fair to call this point the point of origin of
delaware
& also even the epicenter of the entire united states
since new castle was the leading county of delaware
& delaware was the leading state of the united states
& the one with which all the others in fact successively united
moreover delaware was itself a united state before any others united with it
since it was first a union of the 3 breakaway lower counties of pennsylvania
& this building under this spire was the first state capitol
m
>
>Yeah, you caught me out. It is an old church tower.
>
>Still, it brings you back to the early days, when high spires were
>needed in order to see your next point.
>
>Triangulation was really first practised by the Dutch scientist
>Willebrord Snellius (early 17th century), who calculated by this
>method the distance between Alkmaar and Bergen op Zoom.
>
>As it so happens, I went to a highschool named after Snellius.
>
>Peter S.
>
>--- In BoundaryPoint@y..., michael donner <m@d...> wrote:
>> what a beautiful & imposing construction this is
>>
>> it fairly suggests the idea of a national cadastral cathedral
>> & a receptacle for a real point of reference to reverence
>>
>> for it seems only natural to enshrine a beginning place
>> & frankly much better to lift it skyward like this than merely to
>encrypt
>> it underground
>>
>> but did they really build the tower to mark the point
>> or did they hail it back into service in old age to hang the grid
>upon its
>> spire
>> after a previous illustrious career in some other capacity
>>
>>
>> also your info here peter appears to be the essential missing
>link for
>> really understanding what harry was saying in message 1804 about
>what
>> brendan was saying in message 1794 & earlier
>>
>> for it now seems that one of the routes to the most precise possible
>> determination of the baarle boundary cross point really begins here
>in
>> amersfoort
>> while the other route perhaps begins from the belgian counterpart
>to this
>> monument
>> wherever or whatever that may be
>>
>> i certainly hope you can lead us further along the way here too
>>
>> m
>>
>>
>> & so what if it isnt an obelisk
>> it still wins gold for our greatest uplift so far
>>
>>
>>
>> >
>> >Well, not exactly an obelisk, but this is the centre of the Dutch
>> >triangulation grid as used by the cadaster and the topographical
>> >service: <<http://www.vvv-> http://www.vvv-
>amersfoort.com/kunst/architectuur/histor1.htm>
>> ><http://www.vvv-amersfoort.com/kunst/architectuur/histor1.htm>
>>http://www.vvv-amersfoort.com/kunst/architectuur/histor1.htm
>> >
>> >So you could say it is the centre of the Netherlands (although the
>> >geographical centre is somewhere else. I vaguely remember it to be
>> >somewhere near Lunteren). It is the starting point of all
>surveying.
>> >
>> >It used to be X=0 m, Y=0 m. But then they thought it would be
>better
>> >to have only positive co-ordinates in the Netherlands, so they
>moved
>> >the point to the south-west. The grid stayed the same, but the
>tower
>> >nowadays has the co-ordinates X=155000 m, Y=463000 m.
>> >
>> >I visited the tower (Onze Lieve Vrouwetoren) in the city of
>> >Amersfoort last year. As I remember, the X and Y axis are depicted
>on
>> >the ground and radiate from the tower.
>> >
>> >Peter S.
>> >
>> >--- In BoundaryPoint@y..., jane capellaro <j@d...> wrote:
>> >> well thanx for running down that obelisk peter
>> >> & i do apologize for the horrendously bad query
>> >>
>> >> it was the resemblance between hoogstift & stifter that got me in
>> >dutch &
>> >> czech here simultaneously
>> >>
>> >> seriously glad to learn this is not an olympic contender tho
>> >> since the tallest actual tripoint & boundary obelisk i know of is
>> >the
>> >> little one at us2ctmari
>> >> of which a photo is attached below
>> >>
>> >> taller & more distinctive than this one
>> >> tho i have only half a pic of it & am hoping jack can bail me out
>> >here with
>> >> a good pic because he just visited there last year
>> >> is the commemorative quintiobelisk that stands a short distance
>> >from the
>> >> initial point of the sixth principal meridian of the united
>states
>> >public
>> >> land survey
>> >>
>> >> the actual point it celebrates
>> >> hidden in a crypt beneath a roadway
>> >> is simultaneously also both an interstate & a quadricounty point
>> >> or us2ksne3jerethwa6pm in all i think by name
>> >>
>> >> the obelisk is a quinti because lands of 5 states were surveyed
>> >from this
>> >> point of reference
>> >>
>> >> m
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Love,
>> >> Jane
>> >
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