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Your roads, east west north south or slanted?

B

buickanddeere

Well-known Member
The road you live on. Was the county, township or what ever. Was it surveyed to run true east, west, north and south or do they run something other than 0,90,180 & 270?
Concession I'm on runs 30/300 degrees.
 
I think Ohio and eastward the roads were laid out of wildlife and Indian trails.lol.
 
In my area the county roads are laid out north,south,, east,west,but the state roads arent always that way.south west Michigan
 
North, south, east and west and laid out in square miles. Was it laid out before the settlers got here, I do not know.
 
East and west til you get to the bottom of the hill,then there's a mile long curve around a sink hole.
 
In Middle Tennessee, there are virtually no roads that run true North, East, South, or West. Most roads are very twisty-turny and are unpredictable as to which direction they are going to run.

I don't mind that fact, it's just the way it is.

Tom in TN
 
You should be able to check your direction next Sunday, being Spring begins at the equinox. The sun should rise close to due east and set due west; well specifically it happens at 23:21 on the 20th. I don't think you will see the sun at that time. My buildings and township road are pretty close to "square". You could line up your tractor to face due west on Sunday evening and be very close!
 
township road it seems to run true north and south but i wouldn't swear to it.
the county road south of me seems to follow a ridge top.
i know some of the roads here do that i think might have been old indian or animal trails.
north west il.
 
Right in this area(Markdale/Meaford area, Ontario) they run slightly West as you go North. Go east towards Barrie and they run more so to the West as you head North. Blocks are 1.5 miles East to West, 1.25 south to north
 
My road is so crooked. It was an old Indian trail. Coming up a mtn out of a valley it winds around and I think it was partly that way so it was easier on horse and wagon travel.
I can coast out of my driveway and coast 3 miles to town.
 
Roads run along the valleys and through the gaps - east, west, north, and south, sometimes all four within a couple of miles, same as the rivers.

My farm is along that looping river in the middle.
mapE.jpg
 
The first roads were old indian and fur trader routes. Later, the township roads were laid out in a grid pattern - 6 miles x 6 miles for a township. 36 sections per township, roads at the section lines. Roads are generally north & south, excepting for things like lakes. There is some error, the road I'm on is slightly crooked, I think maybe the surveyor's had a few drinks....
 
Our"s follow river and stream vallies and around both sides of lakes mirroring the shore line. The Interstates also follow river vallies which get you from east to west or what ever. No open land to make a straight road from point A to B.
 
In Southern Ohio roads like Interstate 35 were originally Buffalo trails/paths. Section lines were often laid out(N/S & E/W), but usually the easiest path became roads. A few of the N/S and E/W still exist, but are few.
 
[i:654c4848f0]The sun should rise close to due east and set due west[/i:654c4848f0]

That only applies if you live on the equator. There are very few roads that cross the equator in South America or Africa. Those are the only two large land masses. Other areas are Malaysia and Indonisia. Both areas have limited pavement at the equator.
 
Most of our municipal (Western Manitoba) roads here run on a mile grid, although there may not be a road every mile, there is the odd deviation for water, valleys etc, but for the most part they run true to compass directions...

More major highways don"t always follow the grid, the two local ones both follow (more or less) railway lines...

I grew up in the west of England, where roads didn"t follow anything, except perhaps sheep or cattle, locally where i grew up we had a 1 (one)mile straightaway, longest for many miles around and favourite haunt of cop with speed trap gun...
 
Waterloo, IA is really a ness. Many years ago the streets were set uo to follow a small river. Sometime later, a decision was made to run streets north/south and east west. If you don't know this and the town getting to the older areas is a zoo.
 
I have a map of my town in southern NH from colonial times which shows many roads which were laid out at what appears to be 30/300. Many of those were long since abandoned, or have been rounded off or diagonals cut off for short cuts or as Jim In MA says, to get around terrain obstacles. Here and there, there are straight sections which you would not relate to an original grid unless you had the old map to reference.
 
Nothing straight about the roads here. Even the road I live on, 4 lane north south highway bends and turns with deviations of over a half mile.
 
Even numbered roads mostly East and West
Uneven numbered mostly North and South

Roads like I 70 do have a Southerly flow ,but does go west to the Southern major cities.

I agree most country roads Township and State followed old buggy trails. and Indian paths.

People started to build and claimed property along these trails making it difficult to change into a true grid.
 
I don't know what year it happened but the state of North Dakota was officially surveyed and laid out in mile square segments running north and south, east and west. The western part of the state in the badlands area is not used as much in a grid because of the terrain. In most intersections in the country there is aa brass surveyors pipe in the ground in the middle of the road.
 
In large part this depends on how old the state/province is that you live in. The English used a surveying format of "metes and bounds" which relied on landmarks such as trees, streams, etc. As you can imagine as trees die and streams move due to erosion this causes disputes and difficulty generating property descriptions. As such the original colonies and provinces are often laid out for convenience around animal paths, indian trails, streams, obstructions, etc.

After the US gained independence it had very little authority to tax (subject for another thread) and sought to sell parcels of land in the "West" These parcels are generally laid out in accordance with the Public Land Survey System which sets up an organization of townships (6 miles X 6 miles or 23,040 acres) which is further divided into sections (1 mile X 1 Mile or 640 acres) and further to quarter sections of 160 acres and quarter quarter sections of 40 acres. Thus the original homesteads in most of the midwest United States are 40 acres and leading to the terms "back 40", "40 acres and a mule", etc. As you move West and things get more arid and desolate homesteads were increased to 160 acres or even a whole section of 640 acres. Canada shares quite a bit of history and used a similar system to layout much of the western provinces, I think their grid is based on 1.25 Miles X 1.25 Miles. Of course natural obstructions still have a bearing on roads so even when property descriptions are generally in accordance with this system roads often follow valleys, ridges, streams. It is pretty easy to see the system from the air when flying over the midwest especially over the prairie states.

I did a quick google search and came up with the link which has more detail.
Public Land Survey System
 
Huh? Explain to me, then, why day-length is the same from the North pole to the south pole on the 20th of March. Daylight is the same length as well as darkness.
Are you saying that the Equator has a longer day than we will on Sunday?
 
In gibson co. IN theya re for the most part laid out in quarter of half mile grids with the exception of a few but where the farm is they are laid out like gibson co where they recenlty strip mined but where they have not it is just old paths and they made the roads go where the houses and farms were with no order to VERY confusing is you dont know where your going very well
 
MN is basically laid out with a mile grid system, with corrections to allow for the curvature of the earth. Typically, there are narrow "sections" at the West edge of a township. Of course, the 11007 lakes and some snake trails break up the pattern, especially the farther you go North. Red River Valley area of NW MN is about 30 miles wide,couple hundred N-S, and that is a grid- no lakes, few trees, and flat, fertile.
 
Here in West By Gawd, the roads were laid out by a drunken sanke or a dying buffalo the joke goes. It all goes by the the lay of the land and old footpaths.

Aaron
 

In SC roads were at first laid out along Indian paths which followed game trails. In the 1820s-30s they laid out "The State Road" from Charleston to the mountains. They tried to go as far as possible without crossing streams. I own a small section of that road which was left when they straightened the road in the 1930s. It is a narrow road which was never paved.

KEH
 
Right here(southern Cayuga County NY)mostly the roads run basically N-S, E-W. Most of the original lot lines, and associated roads, town lines, etc. are about 3 degrees off true north. Amazingly, from above, you can see lines of hedgerows lining up on opposite sides of woods, gullies, etc. that go on a long ways. These were surveyed long before anyone had that vantage point. You don't have to go very far and it all changes though, because the topography varies greatly here. And different areas were surveyed at different times.
 
West North West south of my house and almost North north of my house. Mississippi river is 2 blocks away to the east. Jim
 
Most of the northern half Iowa is like Minnesota. Square sections going N/S-E/W with a road pretty much every mile. It's interesting to look around on Google Earth to see how the country is laid out. Jim
 
I always found it interesting that many of the roads in Ontario are laid out on a diagonal rather than N-S/E-W. Any idea why that's the case?

Most of the midwestern and western states are laid out on a north-south east-west grid. This pattern was established by the Northwest Ordinance of 1785, which decreed how the midwestern states (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan) were to be divided. This precedent was followed to some degree for most of the states that followed. (I think Hawaii would be the obvious exception.) The original 13 states are laid out in a somewhat less logical fashion, and the roads tend to follow the terrain or perhaps old indian trails.
 
County and township roads are generally N-S, E-W on a 1 mile grid. With a lot of deviation for lakes, swamps, streams, etc. State highways generally followed the old trails and have lots of curves and direction changes. US 12 was the old Indian trail from Detroit to Chicago, but it has been straightened here and there.
 
hey len It was first laid out with stones with carvings,, 1800s,,check out the state watter commishen site for land survays,,,i think,,,,Its kinda interesting,,,,If you cant find it let me know,,,
 
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