Placement of Boundary Stones
The survey team began at the square's south corner on the shoreline of Jones Point in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1791. The team then cleared a corridor along the boundary route to facilitate surveying, starting at the south corner and continuing clockwise, placing sandstone boundary markers at the four corners and at intervals of approximately one mile. These markers were quarried near Aquia Creek in Virginia. Most weighed about a half-ton at their emplacement; the four cornerstones were slightly larger. The Virginia stones were set in 1791, and the Maryland ones in 1792. The location of the four cornerstones and the other markers is identified on the map in "Boundary Stones of the District of Columbia".
The side of a boundary marker that faced the federal territory was inscribed "Jurisdiction of the United States". The opposite side was marked with the name of the border state: Virginia or Maryland. The remaining sides were marked with the year that the team placed the stones and with the marker's compass reading.
Read more about this topic: Boundary Markers Of The Original District Of Columbia
Famous quotes containing the words boundary and/or stones:
“If you meet a sectary, or a hostile partisan, never recognize the dividing lines; but meet on what common ground remains,—if only that the sun shines, and the rain rains for both; the area will widen very fast, and ere you know it the boundary mountains, on which the eye had fastened, have melted into air.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Use the stones of another hill to polish your own jade.”
—Chinese proverb.