Andrew Ellicott (1754 - 1820) - 📸 Land Surveying Photos - Land Surveyors United

Andrew Ellicott (1754 - 1820)

Posted by ⚡Survenator⌁ on February 6, 2012 at 6:56pm

A commissioned officer in the Maryland militia, Major Ellicott was a highly accomplished surveyor having gained experience by working on the survey which extended the Mason-Dixon line westward to its originally intended terminus at the southwest corner of Pennsylvania in 1784. Mason and Dixon had been forced to halt their work in 1767 due to the threat of hostile Indians. Subsequently, Ellicott was hired to establish the western boundary of Pennsylvania, a line that came to be known as "Ellicott's Line". In 1789, Virginia and Maryland had joined in donating territory to establish a new federal capital city on the banks of the Potomac River. At the suggestion of President Washington, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson asked Ellicott to perform the survey of the District of Columbia. Ellicott and his assistant, Benjamin Banneker, began work in the spring of 1791. The following year Washington asked Ellicott to finish Pierre Charles L'Enfant's plan for the city. L'Enfant was a military engineer appointed by President George Washington to plan the new nation's capital city in March 1791. L'Enfant had been dismissed from the project because his perfectionism made him difficult to work with, however, his unwavering dedication to perfection shaped a plan of such genius that it survived and even ennobled the architectural mistakes of many who came after him. Ellicott found it necessary to make some changes to L'Enfant's plan. He changed the alignment of Massachusetts Avenue, eliminated five short radial avenues, added two short radial avenues southeast and southwest of the Capitol, and named the city streets. In less than one month Ellicott had a plan ready for the engravers. A few months later Ellicott, like L'Enfant, found himself at odds with the Commissioners and resigned from the project. In 1796, Ellicott accepted the position of Commissioner of the survey of the international border between the U.S. and Spanish territories in Florida. In 1813, he was appointed by President Monroe as an instructor of mathematics at the Military Academy at West Point. In 1817, he was called on to be the astronomer for the United States as part of the proceedings of the treaty of Ghent, establishing the Canada - U.S. boundary concluding the war of 1812.

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