Have recently been to Washington DC on business. For most of it I was variously at the hotel, conference centre, random eatery or somewhere in transit between the above 3. I could have been anywhere in the USA until our last afternoon when we had a spare evening to go downtown.
We had time to go bag the 'trig' in front of the White House that I'd tried to reach in the summer. Back then I was turned away due to some security alert or other but this time we could get up close to the Zero Milestone.
The zero milestone was established as the point from which all road distances in the US would be measured. If you look closely you can read the wording...
"Point for the measurement of distances from Washington on highways of the United States."
I quite like the fact that congress authorised the determination of latitude and longitude.
As you may suspect, I wasn't alone on my trip. Accompanying me were some equally geeky people (they wouldn't admit it) and in total there were 3 Brits, 2 Canadians and one Australian. Spot which one is the Australian?
