What is the Zero Milestone? Where is it located? Why is it important?
Inspired by the Roman Empire’s Golden Milestone, the Zero Milestone was originally intended to be the zero marker for measuring all highway distances in the United States. However, this novel idea was not accepted by Americans on the West Coast, since their roads would be numbered starting in the 3000s. Today, only the roads in Washington, DC are measured against the Zero Milestone.
Located within the President's Park, the monument can be found at the North edge of The Ellipse, next to the White House South Lawn. Many tourists often congregate around the monument, use it to rest their bags or even sit on it to take photos. Easily missed or ignored completely, this granite monument holds a tremendous amount of history.
The original idea for a milestone was conceived by Pierre Charles L'Enfant in 1791, the city designer responsible for the layout of Washington, DC. He wanted a column placed 1 mile east of the Capitol, but it was never built. In 1804, the Jefferson Stone or Jefferson Pier was placed due west of the Capitol to mark the meridian of the city.
A formal plan for the current Zero Milestone was submitted by Dr. S. M. Johnson in 1919, a strong supporter of the Good Roads Movement, which pushed for the construction & improvement of roads across the United States. In a proposal dated June 7, 1919 to Colonel J. M. Ritchie of the U.S. Army's Motor Transportation Corps, he stated the following :-
"It seems to me the time has come when the Government should designate a point at which the road system of the United States takes its beginning, and that the spot should be marked by an initial milestone, from which all road distances in the United States and throughout the Western hemisphere should be reckoned.
Rome marked the beginning of her system of highways which bound her widely scattered people together by a golden milestone in the Forum. The system of highways radiating from Washington to all the boundaries of the national domain and all parts of the Western hemisphere will do vastly more for national unity and for human unity than even the roads of the Roman Empire.
This stone will endure as the generations and the centuries come and go, till time shall be no more. If that golden milestone in Rome still has the power to fire the imagination of men, how much greater will be the appeal of the Washington milestone as time goes on and American history grows ever richer in deeds of service to humanity."
Source : U.S. Department of Transportation
Article : Zero Milestone - Washington, DC
A temporary marker was established on July 7, 1919 during a ceremony launching the Army's first attempt to send a convoy of military vehicles to San Francisco. The permanent Zero Milestone was dedicated in a ceremony on June 4, 1923.
A Washington architect named Horace W. Peaslee designed the 4 foot by 2 foot marker. It is made of Milford granite and incorporates a bronze disk atop to represent a mariner’s compass. The granite monolith has these engravings on each of the four sides :-
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
Here's a little know fact, the center of the bronze 16 point compass rose acts as a National Geodetic Survey Benchmark (HV1847). On the North side, at the base, is an official brass plate embedded into the ground with 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 Zero Milestone is unique for three other reasons - (1) it is a rare Virtual Geocache, (2) it is a NGS Benchmark and (3) it was published on December 27, 2001. Groundspeak stopped publishing new Virtual Geocaches back in 2005, and grandfathered existing Virtuals. This Virtual is one every Geocacher should visit and get two smileys in the same outing.
Geocache : Mile Zero ( GC2E52 )
Benchmark : Zero Milestone ( HV1847 )
Related : Adventure Series - Washington DC - Monuments Memorials Virtuals
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