{"id":74,"date":"2008-04-19T06:15:09","date_gmt":"2008-04-19T11:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=74"},"modified":"2022-06-22T06:37:36","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T11:37:36","slug":"washington-dc-highpoint-dedication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/washington-dc-highpoint-dedication\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington, DC Highpoint Dedication"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Elevation highpoints captivate me from from time-to-time. I&#8217;ve visited a couple of state highpoints before (<a href=\"\/blog\/?p=23253\">Mount Washington in New Hampshire<\/a> and <a href=\"\/blog\/?p=1455\">Timms Hill in Wisconsin<\/a>). I also wrote about my <a href=\"\/blog\/?p=64\">triumphant climb to the summits<\/a> of both the smallest self-governing county and the smallest independent city in the United States on the same day. It wasn&#8217;t a particularly remarkable or difficult feat as some of you may recall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Definitive Highpoint<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>So it was with great surprise and delight that I stumbled across an article in the Washington Post yesterday evening: &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2008\/04\/17\/AR2008041703859.html?sub=AR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">D.C&#8217;s Puny Peak Enough to Pump Up &#8216;Highpointers&#8217;<\/a>.&#8221; Go ahead, take a look and come back. I&#8217;ll wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/graphics\/blog\/dc_highpoint_marker.jpg\" alt=\"Washington, DC elevation highpoint. Photo by howderfamily.com; (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)\"\/><figcaption>Washington, DC Highpoint Marker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The DC highpoint now measures 409.02 feet above sea level. It&#8217;s exact location is <a href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/maps\/1YqQ9c7hKK5DKVjC9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">38\u00b0 57&#8242; 06.67097&#8243; N, 77\u00b0 04&#8242; 33.99550 W<\/a>, as provided by <a href=\"https:\/\/highpointers.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Highpointers.org<\/a>, the group primarily responsible for making this recognition happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Surprises<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Two things surprise me about this newly-recognized highpoint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>First, the Federal government created the District of Columbia in 1791. So it took more than <em>two centuries<\/em> to determine its elevation highpoint?<\/li><li>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&#8217;t &#8220;count.&#8221;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>So think of all the highpointers who will now have to return to the District to record the new spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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 <a href=\"\/blog\/?p=64\">Arlington&#8217;s Minor&#8217;s Hill<\/a> would be its highpoint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The dedication is this morning (April 19, 2008) at 11:00.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[<em><strong>UPDATE<\/strong>: <a href=\"\/blog\/?p=1588\">I visited the newly-recognized DC highpoint<\/a> in June 2009<\/em>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elevation highpoints captivate me from from time-to-time. I&#8217;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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,95,97,96,77],"tags":[477,102,5366,478,426,479,16,480],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cities","category-elevation","category-government","category-history","category-terrain","tag-dc","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-elevation","tag-fort-reno","tag-highpoint","tag-highpointers","tag-washington","tag-washington-post"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Washington, DC Highpoint Dedication - Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Washington, DC recognized a new elevation highpoint; the old one apparently didn&#039;t count because it was artificial.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/washington-dc-highpoint-dedication\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Washington, DC Highpoint Dedication - Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Washington, DC recognized a new elevation highpoint; the old one apparently didn&#039;t count because it was artificial.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/washington-dc-highpoint-dedication\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-04-19T11:15:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-22T11:37:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/graphics\/blog\/dc_highpoint_marker.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Twelve Mile Circle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@TheReal12MC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@TheReal12MC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Twelve Mile Circle\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/washington-dc-highpoint-dedication\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/washington-dc-highpoint-dedication\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Twelve Mile Circle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9d80a5a18ef467b299e8ca0ed890ba1e\"},\"headline\":\"Washington, DC Highpoint Dedication\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-04-19T11:15:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-22T11:37:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/washington-dc-highpoint-dedication\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":319,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9d80a5a18ef467b299e8ca0ed890ba1e\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/washington-dc-highpoint-dedication\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/graphics\\\/blog\\\/dc_highpoint_marker.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"DC\",\"District of Columbia\",\"Elevation\",\"Fort Reno\",\"Highpoint\",\"Highpointers\",\"Washington\",\"Washington Post\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Cities\\\/Towns\",\"Elevation\",\"Government\",\"History\",\"Terrain\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/washington-dc-highpoint-dedication\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/washington-dc-highpoint-dedication\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/washington-dc-highpoint-dedication\\\/\",\"name\":\"Washington, DC Highpoint Dedication - Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/washington-dc-highpoint-dedication\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/washington-dc-highpoint-dedication\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/graphics\\\/blog\\\/dc_highpoint_marker.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-04-19T11:15:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-22T11:37:36+00:00\",\"description\":\"Washington, DC recognized a new elevation highpoint; 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