Elevation highpoints captivate me from from time-to-time. I’ve visited a couple of state highpoints before (Mount Washington in New Hampshire and Timms Hill in Wisconsin). I also wrote about my triumphant climb to the summits of both the smallest self-governing county and the smallest independent city in the United States on the same day. It wasn’t a particularly remarkable or difficult feat as some of you may recall.
A Definitive Highpoint
So it was with great surprise and delight that I stumbled across an article in the Washington Post yesterday evening: “D.C’s Puny Peak Enough to Pump Up ‘Highpointers’.” Go ahead, take a look and come back. I’ll wait.
The DC highpoint now measures 409.02 feet above sea level. It’s exact location is 38° 57′ 06.67097″ N, 77° 04′ 33.99550 W, as provided by Highpointers.org, the group primarily responsible for making this recognition happen.
Surprises
Two things surprise me about this newly-recognized highpoint.
- First, the Federal government created the District of Columbia in 1791. So it took more than two centuries to determine its elevation highpoint?
- Second, the spot people generally considered the highpoint was wrong. The government built a reservoir atop the hill to gravity-feed water throughout the city. However, its construction apparently created an artificial highpoint so it doesn’t “count.”
So think of all the highpointers who will now have to return to the District to record the new spot.
The article also said it took the Washington, DC bureaucracy five years to recognize the change. Yes, now that I can believe. Oh, and by the way, if territory retroceded by the District of Columbia to Virginia in 1847 (Arlington County and part of the City of Alexandria) was still part of the District, then Arlington’s Minor’s Hill would be its highpoint.
The dedication is this morning (April 19, 2008) at 11:00.
[UPDATE: I visited the newly-recognized DC highpoint in June 2009]
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