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Article: Coast and Geodetic Survey
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY
COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY.
The Coast and Geodetic Survey was born in 1807 when Congress, on the initiative of President Thomas Jefferson, passed a law authorizing "a survey to be taken of the coasts of the United States." The Survey, originally called the Coast Survey, was
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for the first time in the history of the new nation
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"to designate the islands and shoals, with the roads and places of anchorage, within twenty leagues of any part of the shores of the United States.
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" The Survey, using new scientific methods, would be responsible for producing accurate charts of these features and would also identify other key characteristics of what ...