Section Line Trivia

[Alan Leigh Armstrong]

>The same is true elsewhere - the main North South street in Indianapolis is
>Meridian, being the 2nd Principal Meridian. Denver is laid out on much the
>same pattern as is described for Chicago. A main street in Boulder Colo is
>Baseline Rd. and on and on...
>
>Stan Morris
>
>
>>        Jefferson ordered a survey of the Louisiana Purchase (the
>>Jeffersonian Survey) that continued the pattern of mile-square sections and
>>six-mile-square townships.  And the same pattern was applied to other
>>unsurveyed areas of the country.  All over the country, roads were laid out
>>on the section lines.  Not surprisingly, the pattern remains more regular in
>>some places than in others.
>>
>>        True Trivia:  The main streets of Chicago are laid out on the
>>section-line roads and make perfect one-mile squares, criss-crossed by
>>diagonals laid out on other grounds.  North, East, and West of State and
>>Madison, the section-line roads are every 800 street numbers -- 800, 1600,
>>2400, etc.  The south-side numbers are irregular; the section-line roads are
>>Roosevelt (1200), Cermak (2200), 31st, 39th, and every 800 thereafter to at
>>least 211th St. in the far south burbs.
>>
>>At 09:45 AM 8/18/97 -0500, you wrote:
>>>     Another correction:  I suppose I am too much a romantic about my home
>>>     state of Nebraska.  After reading the correction that I made Friday
>>>     afternoon regarding the Mississippi river, I failed to realize that
>>>     the geography we now call Nebraska could not have been part of the
>>>     Northwest Territory included in the Land Ordinance of 1785.  However,
>>>     Nebraska *is* striped by the section lines that I described, but that
>>>     is probably due to the Northwest Ordinance (of 1787).
>>>
>>>     Rob Hotz
>>>     Lincoln, Nebraska
>>>
Add to the list Baseline in San Bernardino County. It is just North of
Highway 66 (Foothill/Alosta).
In North & West Orange County, California, Major streets (Valley View/Bolsa
Chica, Springdale, Golden West/Knott, Beach, and others are 1 mile apart
with less important streets half way between.

Alan

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