We say the cows laid out Boston. Well, there are worse surveyors.
??Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1860
http://geoffboeing.com/2018/07/comparing-city-street-orientations/
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I think I've followed a couple of them (not the cows).
Andy
Researching a road layout in Concord, I found a petition signed by R.W. Emerson and other residents to the county commissioners to alter the layout of a highway. They complained that the grade was too steep at the peak of a large hill. Wagon teams really struggled to climb the grade. They were successful in re-routing that stretch. Later, with the advent of internal combustion engines, the now-state highway was straightened out again, and the peak reduced a bit with heavy machinery.
Getting the cow drunk first adds to the so-called road orientation fun.
Getting the cow drunk first adds to the so-called road orientation fun.
You're just angling for someone to pick up your bar tab.?ÿ
Compare?ÿthe orientations of the quoted road layouts to England's. Makes our American cows look like Einsteins compared to their Holsteins.?ÿOf course they can conveniently just blame the Romans.
Interesting article. I always wondered why Savannah was laid out on a N 17d E orientation, then it dawned on me that James Oglethorpe and Noble Jones started their street lines perpendicular to the Savannah River bluff where they established the Colony in 1733. This N 17d E orientation became the accepted orientation for surveys well into the 1970's and 1980's whenever some of the old guys would do downtown surveys. Compass??? We don't need no stinkin compass.......
As Savannah grew southward, eastward, and westward, we started following the drunk cows, and the old Surveyors had to actually break out the compass.
