  Urbanize Member Username: Urbanize Post Number: 19 Registered: 02-2007 |
Ok, don't know if this has been asked. What is the history of the street, how did it come about and most of all, could someone give me the background of the signature power lines that stretch along it? | ||
Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 172 Registered: 08-2006 |
It came about because it lies along the principal East West Base Line for the Land Survey System in Michigan. It is also 8 Miles due north of a point in Campus Martius which is the central monument of Augustus Woodwards downtown street system plat. The mile roads lie along section lines each spaced 1 mile apart which is why the roads exist. I know this was linked before but wikipedia explains is quite well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8 _Mile_Road http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M ile_Road_System_%28Detroit%29 As for the power lines I think it was a wide enough area to run the lines in a densly developed cooridor. | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 641 Registered: 12-2005 |
Also some information in this archived thread: https://www.atdetroit.net/forum/mes sages/91697/92937.html | ||
623kraw Member Username: 623kraw Post Number: 928 Registered: 10-2003 |
What is (was) the survey point in Campus Martius? | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 642 Registered: 12-2005 |
Coasting the Base Line | ||
Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 174 Registered: 08-2006 |
The survey point is a point of origin which all land measurements are based on downtown. It is a known location to locate your particular plat. Since there were no section corners in 1805 as the US land system did not come for some years later they used their own monument which they set at Campus Martius the center of the downtown street plan. You can still see it as they have it well marked and you can look through glass and see it. When they were working there a few years ago they hit it. A monument is usually well placed and anchored in well, this one sure was because it was placed there in 1805. It had been years since it was seen or used. You can go see it at Campus Martius now! | ||
Bulletmagnet Member Username: Bulletmagnet Post Number: 65 Registered: 01-2007 |
http://farm1.static.flickr.com /169/407404622_5d6b13f019_o.jp g early photo taken by Abe Linkon | ||
Oladub Member Username: Oladub Post Number: 14 Registered: 08-2006 |
A committee, chaired by former surveyor Thomas Jefferson, proposed a rectangular survey system in the Northwest Territory, with boundaries that ran north and south, east and west. French farmers had farms perpendicular to the Detroit River. The base line had to be established north of the French farms. Draw the line across Lake Michigan and it is the border and baseline of both Illinois and Wisconsin. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 2665 Registered: 10-2004 |
quote: Just how far into Lake Michigan does that state line run? Most people never notice, but there is a border with Canada for Wisconsin. But, it's somewhere in Lake Superior for a short distance. | ||
Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 178 Registered: 08-2006 |
I have looked at a few maps and it does not seem that the base line is the border for Wisconsin and Illinois....I noticed it before I will have to research it a bit more... | ||
Detroitstar Member Username: Detroitstar Post Number: 523 Registered: 01-2006 |
Livernoisyard, you are incorrect about the Wisconsin boarder comment. Minnesota is actually North of Wisconsin and Michigan at that point. (the boarders layer in Google Earth helps to illustrate this) It's strange to think that part of Minnesota is geographically more East than part of Michigan but it is true. (Message edited by DetroitSTAR on March 02, 2007) | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 4923 Registered: 11-2003 |
Baseline Rd. is a county divider as well all across Michigan. Baseline ends at South Haven, Michigan and takes over as State Line of Wisconsin, but about a couple of miles North of Detroit's Baseline. That line ends in Dubuque. So, with backside to Lake St. Clair, look west and try to see Dubuque, Iowa. For further info., ask Marshall Mathers. jjaba. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 3717 Registered: 08-2004 |
I agree with Detroitstar about Wisconsin not touching Canada. And the reason is because Michigan's Isle Royale National Park is actually closer to both Canada (the town of Thunder Bay) and to the very tip of Minnesota (Grand Portage), than it is to the Keewenaw Peninnsula. In fact the Rand McNally Cosmopolitan World Atlas that I am looking at shows that where the border of Minnesota and Ontario go into Lake Superior, the Michigan (water) border appears to be only about 2 miles out in Lake Superior from that point. Either that is an error, or a very surprising revelation. Can someone else confirm or deny this via their atlas? | ||
Oladub Member Username: Oladub Post Number: 15 Registered: 08-2006 |
Michigan's Base Line began near the latitude of 42 degrees and 30 minutes N, which is the boundary between Oakland and Wayne Counties, north of Detroit, and ran due west to Lake Michigan. (This line even ran across Lake Michigan to become the boundary between Illinois and Wisconsin.) http://www.profsurv.com/archiv e.php?issue=90&article=1265 Michigan's baseline, was surveyed by Alexander Holmes. Although regulations governing the U.S. Public Land Survey System would later specify that the baseline should be a true parallel of latitude, this was not the case in earlier surveys, including the Michigan survey. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M ichigan_Meridian The Wisconsin/Illinois base lines and border similarly vary above and below 42 degrees and 30 minutes North. No GIS mapping then. | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 1630 Registered: 12-2005 |
Recent related thread: https://www.atdetroit.net/forum/mes sages/91697/92937.html | ||
Soulhawk Member Username: Soulhawk Post Number: 286 Registered: 04-2004 |
The power lines are electrical transmission lines. They carry 345,00 or 120,000 volts from Northwest station, which is located on eight mile near the Southfield freeway, to various sub-stations in the surrounding area. At the sub-stations, the voltages are stepped down to distribution voltages, such as 13,200 volts, and then the current is sent out on typical back-yard type power lines to residential or business districts. A few years back, Detroit Edison was made to sell almost all of their transmission lines to a company named ITC. Just a side note, if one of those towers ever collapsed onto eight mile, we would have a major disaster on our hands! Think about how bad it sucks to get poked with 120 volts. Now, think about how dead you would be if your car was struck by a line carrying 120,000 volts! | ||
Urbanize Member Username: Urbanize Post Number: 21 Registered: 02-2007 |
There's also sub-station at Hoover and 8 Mile, Moundish and 8 Mile and Kelly and 8 Mile. | ||
Psip Member Username: Psip Post Number: 1489 Registered: 04-2005 |
I seem to remember an Edison field engineer telling me the 8 mile line were 500,000v and they were working on raising it to 750,000v. Those lines are fed from the lines that run along side Hoover up to the St. Marys plant. They don't look like it from the ground, but the insulators holding the lines are almost 6 feet long. (Message edited by PSIP on March 02, 2007) | ||
Mikem Member Username: Mikem Post Number: 3135 Registered: 10-2003 |
I think Soulhawk is partially correct. The power lines carry power from the Northeast substation on Eight Mile between Sherwood & Mound, east to the Erin substation in Eastpointe on Kelly Road, a few blocks north of Eight Mile, and west to the Lincoln substation in Royal Oak, following Eight Mile then up the GTRR tracks east of Woodward. These are 120kV lines, however the Erin substation was recently rebuilt and so the voltage may have been upgraded at that time, although I guarantee you they are not 345kV or 500 kV as the towers and clearances don't meet the standards for those voltages(the highest voltage lines within the state are 345 kV). The Northwest substation is usually fed from the Quaker sub in Novi near 12 Mile and Haggerty, the Evergreen sub, corner of Evergreen and Schoolcraft, as well as the Northeast sub, although that may indirectly through the Lincoln substation. | ||
Psip Member Username: Psip Post Number: 1490 Registered: 04-2005 |
An interesting paper on the 2003 Blackout. http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/media/a rchives/documents/Blackout_Sum mary.pdf | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 3725 Registered: 08-2004 |
This was an urban legend, (and discussed in another thread 2 years ago)... but as a kid in the 1960's I was told that the power lines on 8 Mile (and those going up thru Warren & Sterling Heights between Hoover & Schoenherr) were there because south Macomb County didn't want to be the location of the new Detroit Airport, once the determination was made that Willow Run would not be the metro airport. And instead Romulus was chosen. Again this was an urban legend in the mid 20th century, which IIRC was debunked in an earlier thread in 2005. | ||
Urbanize Member Username: Urbanize Post Number: 27 Registered: 02-2007 |
Sounds a bit obscured. That legend can't be true. I'm sure anyone in this day and age would want an airport. They do have better economic opportunities. Also, weren't the power lines there before the new airport came around? | ||
Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 180 Registered: 08-2006 |
Warren was one of the sites considered for an airport for the region in the 40s or 50s or whatever it was. I always did find it funny that the lines run along just the Detorit border except for the 1.5 miles of Redford from five points to Inkster rd. | ||
Urbanize Member Username: Urbanize Post Number: 34 Registered: 02-2007 |
Actually, isn't the real border generally around .05 miles south of 8 mile? I believe the address of the CVS in 8 Mile and Gratiot is in Eastpointe. | ||
Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 181 Registered: 08-2006 |
That is the most in correct thing I have ever heard that CVS is definately in Detroit! | ||
Urbanize Member Username: Urbanize Post Number: 35 Registered: 02-2007 |
Then something's not right, although I did see a map where the actual border was below 8 Mile. Also, I saw it somewhere that the CVS as addressed in Detroit. Maybe that was the old one and wasn't updated. | ||
Mikem Member Username: Mikem Post Number: 3137 Registered: 10-2003 |
The proposed airport location in Warren (the first of several sites proposed) was at the northeast corner of Eight Mile and Dequindre. This was in 1943. The first set of power lines which run south through Macomb County to the Northeast substation were built ~1922. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 4924 Registered: 11-2003 |
Wayne Major Airport, the site of Metro Airport, is a very old air field. When this replaced Willow Run, it was ALREADY an airport. nothing had to be invented and the vacant land was available. jjaba. |
