Before Thomas Jefferson became president he came upwards amongst the vivid thought of dividing upwards the American westward into regular rectangular parcels of land. The Public Land Survey System was devised inward lodge to distribute province to Revolutionary War soldiers together with to come inward easier for the authorities to heighten coin past times selling land.
The effect is what is straight off known equally the 'Jefferson Grid'. If yous cause got always flown over the U.S.A. together with then yous volition no doubtfulness cause got seen these foursquare mile sections inward the American landscape. From the air it appears that a lot of the USA is nigh perfectly divided into i mile squares.
Although it isn't quite perfect. If you've always driven across that same landscape together with then yous mightiness cause got likewise experienced Jefferson Grid corrections. In lodge to right for the curved cast of the public the regular Jefferson Grid arrangement has to brand occasional deviations. These deviations help larn around the occupation of placing a 2 dimensional rectilinear grid onto the surface of a 3 dimensional sphere.
Photographer Gerco de Ruitjer's has compiled a beautiful collection of aerial images showing examples of where the Jefferson Grid has foreign kinks, bends or curves to right for the curved cast of the Earth. In Grid Corrections yous tin stance examples of where the Jefferson grids are non perfectly aligned.
If these grid corrections are non to your gustation together with then yous mightiness prefer to stance areas where the grid is perfectly aligned. You tin encounter some neat examples of how Thomas Jefferson shaped the American landscape on the Jefferson Grid Instagram account. This concern human relationship posts aerial imagery (taken from Google Earth) showing examples of Jefferson's gridded plots of land.
