American Meridian

From: http://forgotten-ny.com/OUT.OF.TOWN/wash.DC.foggy/foggy.html

"24th and H Streets. This is the Thomas Jefferson-proposed site of the American Meridian, a point where he had proposed that all longitudes in the USA would be measured from. The USA did adopt this spot in Foggy Bottom as the "center of the world", 0 degrees longitude, here between 1848 and 1884. The American Median still plays a part in USA geography, however; the borders of many of our western states were measured from it, which is the reason their borders are so straight compared with eastern states. Wyoming's east and west borders were set at 29 and 36 degrees west; Colorado's at 27 and 34 degrees; and Oregon's east border at 42 degrees."