page_title: Boundary markers of the original District of Columbia
section_title: Placement of the boundary stones
hierarchical_section_title: Boundary markers of the original District of Columbia / Placement of the boundary stones
caption_attribution_description: English: The Southern D.C. boundary cornerstone is located in the sea wall of Jones Point Light.
context_page_description: The boundary markers of the original District of Columbia are the 40 milestones that marked the four lines forming the boundaries between the states of Maryland and Virginia and the square of 100 square miles of federal territory that became the District of Columbia in 1801. Working under the supervision of three commissioners that President George Washington had appointed in 1790 in accordance with the federal Residence Act, a surveying team that Major Andrew Ellicott led placed these markers in 1791 and 1792. Among Ellicott's assistants were his brothers Joseph and Benjamin Ellicott, Isaac Roberdeau, George Fenwick, Isaac Briggs and an African American astronomer, Benjamin Banneker.
  Today, 36 of the original marker stones survive as the oldest federally placed monuments in the United States. Thirteen of these markers are now within Virginia due to the return of the portion of the District south and west of the Potomac River to Virginia in 1846.
context_section_description: On March 30, 1791, President George Washington issued a proclamation that established ″Jones's point, the upper cape of Hunting Creek in Virginia″ as the starting point for the federal territory's boundary survey. Acting in accordance with instructions in the proclamation, the survey team then began its work at the square's south corner on the shoreline of the point, which was at the southeast corner of Alexandria, Virginia.  On April 15, 1791, officials dedicated the south corner stone in an elaborate Masonic ceremony at a point that Andrew Ellicott had determined.
  The survey team then cleared a corridor along the boundary route to facilitate surveying, traveling clockwise from the point and placing sandstone boundary markers at the four corners and at intervals of approximately one mile. The markers were quarried near Aquia Creek in Virginia. Most weighed about a half-ton at their emplacement; the four cornerstones were slightly larger. The Virginia stones were set in 1791, and the Maryland ones in 1792.  The map on the web page "Boundary Stones of the District of Columbia" identifies the location of each of the four corner stones, and those of the still-in-place intermediate stones.
  The side of a boundary marker that faced the federal territory was inscribed "Jurisdiction of the United States" and with the distance in miles and poles from the previous corner stone. The opposite side was marked with the name of the border state: Virginia or Maryland. The remaining sides were marked with the year that the team placed the stones and with the variation ("Var.") of the compass needle at that place.
  On January 1, 1793, Andrew Ellicott submitted to the commissioners a report that stated that the boundary survey had been completed and that all of the boundary marker stones had been set in place.  Ellicott's report described the marker stones and contained a map that showed the boundaries and topographical features of the Territory of Columbia,  The map identified the locations within the Territory of the planned City of Washington and its major streets, as well as the location of each boundary marker stone.
  
  The following images show the sides of the Southeast No. 6 boundary marker stone on August 17, 2011:
caption: South corner stone within seawall south of the Jones Point Lighthouse in Alexandria, Virginia (2010)
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