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Why U.S. Roads are Spaced One Mile Apart
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In the 1780s, the United States began to survey its land. This survey process resulted in townships six miles to a side, and roads every single mile. This video explores how that shaped our land and our cities.
Resources on this topic:
- Excellent journal article on this topic:
Webster, G. R., & Leib, J. (2010). Living on the grid: the US rectangular public land survey system and the engineering of the American landscape. In Engineering Earth: The Impacts of Megaengineering Projects (pp. 2123-2138). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
- https://legaldictionary.net/metes-and-bounds/
- Surveyor Book: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Manual_of_United_States_Surveying_System/kRbA8nEdWTQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=rectangular+survey+United+States+cities&pg=PR11&printsec=frontcover
- https://jchmhistorian.com/2021/09/27/monday-map-day-ft-howard-green-bay-1827/
- https://humantransit.org/2010/11/transits-role-in-sprawl-repair.html
Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.
Written by Dave Amos.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
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