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First in a three part aarlea
true north so accurate for property lines were run.
Why Greenwich
England?
Greenwich was picked for England’s Prime Meridian because the British Royal Observatory was established in Greenwich in 1675 to figure out how British ships could accurately locate themselves at sea. Knowing a ship’s true position back then was dicey. The problem was solved and Greenwich became England’s Prime Meridian, e.g., its zero longitude.
Other countries created their own prime meridians, their own zero longitudes. It was practical; it was prestigious. Why locate a reference line in some other country far away? Belgium used Brussels. Italy used Rome. France used Paris for its zero longitude. Ports were a favorite place: Naples, Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon, etc. Even American ports in colonial days established themselves as prime meridians: Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Charleston among them.
All these nationalistic and local prime meridians caused great confusion and led to an International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C., in October 1884. Mainly because 72 percent of the world’s shipping used England’s prime meridian,
85.8%