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that the United States is entitled to the possession of land in the District that has been reclaimed by filling in below low-water line on the Virginia side. Jurisdiction and sovereignty over the tract in dispute in this case, comprising an area of 46.57 acres adjoining Alexandria, were transferred to Virginia by United States act approved February 23, 1927.57

The District Court of Appeals, in a decision rendered November 6, 1922, recognized the claim that high-water mark on the south bank of the Potomac is the boundary between the District of Columbia and Virginia.

The District of Columbia was planned to be exactly 10 miles square, but it has been found that the northeast side measures 263.1 feet and the southeast side 70.5 feet more than 10 miles. The lines do not bear exactly 45° from the meridian, but the greatest variation is only 134.58 The entire boundary of the District of Columbia was surveyed in 1791 and was marked with sandstone mileposts in 1792. These posts, except those at the four corners, were numbered from 1 to 9, counting clockwise, for each of the four boundary lines. The stone shown in Plate 9, B, after standing 130 years, was in 1922 still in so good condition that the inscription on the side facing the District of Columbia can be read easily in the engraving (from a photograph); the inscription on the opposite side is "Maryland"; that on the left is the declination of the compass, 0° 18′ E.; on the right is the year the stones were placed, 1792. The part of the stone above ground measures 12 by 12 by 24 inches."

In 1915-1921 each of the original boundary stones was surrounded by an iron fence, erected by the District of Columbia and Virginia chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

By a bill approved March 3, 1903,60 funds were provided for additional marks on the District of Columbia-Maryland boundary line, to be placed at road crossings and at other prominent points. The work was completed the same year, but without the formal cooperation of any Maryland representative. The new marks are of cut granite, 6 inches square on top, and project 12 inches above ground. The latitudes and longitudes of the north, east, and south corner stones of the District of Columbia are as follows:

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For data regarding surveys and boundary marks see Baker, Marcus, Nat. Geog. Mag., vol. 6, pp. 149-165, 1894.

59 See Shuster, E. A., Boundary stones of the District of Columbia: Nat. Geog. Mag., vol. 20, p. 356, 1909.

60 32 Stat. L. 961.

These positions are on North American datum.

The south corner stone at Jones Point, below Alexandria, which was the first one established, was set with appropriate ceremonies. April 15, 1791.

By act of February 21, 1871,81 the entire area within the boundary of the District was made a distinct government with the title of the District of Columbia and constituted a "body corporate for municipal purposes."62

The initial point of several of the original land grants upon which the city of Washington is founded was a mark on a large rock commonly called the "Key of all keys," which was then at the edge of the Potomac River. According to tradition, Braddock's army landed at this place on its way to Fort Duquesne. This rock has been covered with dirt and the river bed filled in so that the concrete pier and tablet established in 1910 over the mark are now more than 1,000 feet from the river's edge. The new mark is in the Naval Hospital grounds about 300 feet west from the corner of Twentythird and B Streets NW.

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The zero milestone, from which public highways of the United States are supposed to radiate, authorized by joint resolution of Congress June 5, 1920, and dedicated June 4, 1923, is a granite pier 24 by 24 inches in section mounted on a concrete base and projecting 4 feet above ground, standing on the north edge of the Ellipse 900 feet south of the White House, in latitude 38° 53′ 42.32", longitude 77° 02′ 12.49". The tablet in the base is 28.65 feet above mean sea level.

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In 1606 King James I of England granted the "first charter" of Virginia. The boundaries therein described are as follows: 65

situate, lying, or being all along the Sea Coasts, between four and thirty degrees of Northerly Latitude from the Equinoctial Line and five and forty degrees of the same Latitude, and in the main Land between the same four and thirty and five and forty Degrees and the Islands thereunto adjacent, or within one hundred Miles of the coast thereof.

1 16 Stat. L. 419.

62 See 174 U. S. 196-359 for land history of the area covered by the District of Columbia from the time of the King's grant to Lord Baltimore, June 20, 1632, with reproductions of several old maps. This case gives many references to former decisions relating to riparian

rights.

63 41 Stat. L. 1062.

"The Commonwealth of Virginia" is the full legal name for this State. For a brief history of cessions to Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia and of boundary-line surveys between them from 1606 to 1821, see Haywood, John, The civil and political history of Tennessee, 2d ed., pp. 15-37, Nashville, 1891. For reference to old Virginia charters, abstracts of boundary descriptions, descriptions of boundary marks, etc., see Code of Virginia, vol. 1, pp. 10-22, Richmond, 1919.

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narter was granted, called the "second charter" ve defines the boundaries in the following terms 66

and being in that part of America, called Virginia, from the Cape or Point Comfort, all along the Sea Coast to the aundred miles, and from the said point of Cape Comfort, all ast to the Southward, two hundred Miles, and all that Space Land, lying from the Sea Coast of the Precinct aforesaid, up broughout from Sea to Sea, West and Northwest; And also all xg within one hundred Miles along the Coast of both Seas of NA aforesaid.

12 the "third charter" of Virginia was granted, which ...culargement of the second. It gave the following territory: 67 Singular those Islands whatsoever, situate and being in any Part of Seas bordering upon the Coast of our said first Colony in Virginia, g within three Hundred Leagues of any of the Parts heretofore ...ed to the said Treasurer and Company in our former Letters Patent as id, and being within or between the one-and-fortieth and thirtieth ces of Northerly Latitude.

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the charter of 1609 gave Virginia a strip of land bordering on the coast for 200 miles northward from Point Comfort and for the same distance southward and extending inland west and northwest to the South Sea. A point 200 miles due north of Point Comfort would fall in latitude 39° 54', or about 13 miles north of the present south boundary of Pennsylvania. An irregular line 200 miles long, measured along the coast from Point Comfort, would reach about as far north as the Pennsylvania boundary. A point 200 miles due south from Point Comfort would fall in latitude 34° 06′. The territory included within these boundaries comprised, wholly or in part, the present States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina and the vast region stretching west and northwest to the Pacific Ocean.

The area covered by the charter of 1611-12 included the Bermuda. Islands.

In 1625 the colony was changed to a royal province, the three charters having been canceled by judgment of the Court of Kings Bench in the preceding year, but Virginia still claimed the boundaries fixed by the charters.

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The description "west and northwest " left the northern boundary of the colony poorly defined, but it was more definitely fixed when reductions in area were made by the charters to Maryland in 1632 and to Pennsylvania in 1681. The Connecticut charter of 1662 prac

do Thorpe, F. N., op. cit., vol. 7, p. 3795.

7 Idem, p. 3804.

Mar del Sur (South Sea) was the name given to the Pacific Ocean by Balboa in 1513, when he first saw it at a place where the shore line runs nearly east and west.

Donaldson, Thomas, op. cit., p. 33.

tically made the parallel of 41° the northern boundary. (See p. 102.) The charters of Carolina in 1663 and 1665 changed the southern boundary to its present statute position.

The area of Virginia was still further reduced by the French treaty of 1763, which made the Mississippi River the west boundary, by the cession to the United States of the territory northwest of the Ohio River in 1784, by the admission of Kentucky as an independent State in 1792, by the division in 1863 when the new State of West Virginia was created and admitted to the Union, and finally by the transfer of two counties to West Virginia in 1866. (See fig. 10.)

By the constitution of 1776 Virginia formally gave up all claim to the territory now appertaining to the neighboring States of Maryland, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and South Carolina, as will be seen by the following extract:

The territories contained within the Charters erecting the Colonies of Maryland, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina are hereby ceded, released, and forever confirmed, to the people of these Colonies, respectively, with all the rights of property, jurisdiction, and government, and all the rights whatsoever, which might at any time heretofore, have been claimed by Virginia, except the free navigation and use of the rivers Patomaque and Pokomoke, with the property of the Virginia shores and strands, bordering on either of said rivers, and ▸ all improvements, which have been or shall be made thereon. The western and northern extent of Virginia shall, in all other respects, stand as fixed by the charter of King James I, in the year one thousand six hundred and nine, and by the public treaty of peace between the Courts of Britain and France in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-three; unless by act of this Legislature one or more governments be established westwards of the Alleghany mountains.

In the meantime grants of territory had been made within the present limits of Virginia and West Virginia, which caused great dissatisfaction to the people of the Virginia Colony and which ultimately had an important bearing in settling the divisional line between Maryland and Virginia.

In the twenty-first year of Charles II (1670) a grant was made to Lord Hopton and others of what is still called "the northern neck of Virginia," which was sold by the other patentees to Lord Culpeper and confirmed to him by letters patent in the fourth year of James II (1689). This grant carried with it nothing but the right of soil and incidents of ownership, it being expressly subjected to the jurisdiction of the Government of Virginia. The tract of land thereby granted was "bounded by and within the heads of the rivers Tappahannock, alias Rappahannock, and Quiriough, alias Potowmack." On the death of Lord Culpeper this proprietary tract descended to Lord Fairfax, who had married Lord Culpeper's only daughter.

As early as 1729 difficulties arose from conflicting grants made by Lord Fairfax and the Crown. In 1730 Virginia petitioned the King, reciting that the head springs of Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers

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