>
>
>I think USGS would say that they are no AUTHORITIES on the positions
>of legal boundaries. Frankly, I am surprised that they even bother to put
>on the "3 mile limit" line. USGS maps are not valid for navigation,
>another agency does those.
indeed they have told me they are no authorities themselves
but then added inexplicably
except in the case of west virginia
mainly tho i think they are just reporters of fact
doing the best they can & doing it very well
which would explain why they bother to put on the 3 mile limit line
& also why they dont put on the 3 mile line wherever they must report & so
do put on the 3 league line
indeed the interface of these 2 conflicting standards is most poignantly
depicted by them in large at
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=30.2942&lon=-87.5736&s=200&size=l
& it was this detail
plus the fact that the newest 5 of the 18 relevant quads are impeccable in
depicting the territorial waters tripoints
which confirmed to me late last night
against the growing likelihood that i was a complete jerk
that all 18 of these points must be already real or in process of
actualization at known or predictable positions
& i know the topos arent meant for navigation but they may be valid for it
at least thats what i told myself when i made my way to the ctnyri tristate
point they clearly & i believe accurately indicate
when gps was less reliable
of course i would never do such a thing today
tho i still dont own a gps
excuse me i will return soon
m
>
>On Fri, 4 Aug 2000, michael donner wrote:
>
>> for the usgs topo indicates that the interstate boundary
>> namely nyri or new york rhode island in the present case
>> not only reaches the red arc line but actually runs straight across it
>> oops
>> & in fact stretches way past it & out to sea
>> oh no
>>
>> <http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=41.2364=-71.964=1=200>
>>http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=41.2364&lon=-71.964&size=1&s=200
>>
>>
>>
>> so i had to ask again what really is the limit of state waters here
>
>Good question. Someone should check a law library rather than
>speculating. (If they are interested.)
>
>> was the cartographer aware of the meanings of the lines he was drawing
>
>Probably.
>
>> or am i not understanding their meanings myself
>
>The part you might be missing is that the USGS is probably not an
>authority on the status of boundaries.
>
>> indeed i have previously found the usgs to be in error about the positions
>> of at least 3 tristate points & perhaps several more than that
>> sometimes owing to outdatedness but sometimes to outright blunders also
>
>Examples?
>
>> another spectacular miss & large kb
>> <http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=40.498=-73.9894=100=l>
>>http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=40.498&lon=-73.9894&s=100&size=l
>> where it is most probable that a change in topo quads is what causes the
>> njny or new jersey new york interstate boundary to end just shy of the arc
>> line
>
>obviously correct-- the depth contours also stop abruptly at the quad
>sheet boundary.
>
>> this preposterous situation underscores the fact that production standards
>> do vary widely among the usgs maps themselves
>
>They vary a lot over time, and many of the "latest" maps are 20 or 20
>years only, so when they are updated they may be 20 or 30 years different
>from their neighbors.
>
>David
>dmark@...
>
>
>
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