- 49th parallel north
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This article is about the circle of latitude in the northern hemisphere. For other uses, see 49th parallel (disambiguation).
49°49th parallel northThe 49th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 49 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean.
The city of Paris is located just below the 49th parallel, and is the largest city between the 48th and 49th parallel.
The parallel forms part of the Canada – United States border from British Columbia to Manitoba on the Canadian side and from Washington to Minnesota on the U.S. side, or from the Strait of Georgia to the Lake of the Woods. Its use as the international border is a result of the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 and the Oregon Treaty of 1846.
From a point on the ground at this latitude, the sun is above the horizon for 16 hours, 12 minutes during the summer solstice and 8 hours, 14 minutes during the winter solstice.[1]
Contents
Geography
Starting at the Prime Meridian and heading eastwards, the parallel 49° north passes through:Monuments on the parallel
The Peace Arch border
- The Peace Arch is a large monument between Surrey, British Columbia, and Blaine, Washington. It is the centerpiece of Peace Arch Park.
- Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park in Alberta and Montana
- The International Peace Garden is located at the border between Manitoba and North Dakota, about midway between the nearby communities of Boissevain, Manitoba and Dunseith, North Dakota. It has as its focal point the Peace Tower (actually four identical monuments 120 feet (36.6 m) tall set parallel only a few feet apart, two on each side of the border, giving the appearance of a double tower from most vantage points in the Garden).
- The Stadtgarten in Karlsruhe, Germany, marks the 49th parallel with a stone and painted line.
The Canada – United States border
Main article: Canada – United States border
49th parallel at Waterton Lake, showing the cleared strip of land along the U.S./Canadian border.History
Following the Louisiana Purchase by the United States in 1803, it was generally agreed that the boundary between the new territory and British North America was along the watershed between the Missouri River and Mississippi River basins on one side and the Hudson Bay basin on the other. However, it is often difficult to precisely determine the location of a watershed in a region of level plains, such as in central North America. The British and American committees that met after the War of 1812 to resolve boundary disputes recognized there would be much animosity in surveying the watershed boundary, and agreed on a simpler border solution in 1818: the 49th parallel. Both sides gained and lost some territory by this convention, but the United States gained more than it lost, in particular securing title to the Red River Basin. This convention established the boundary only between the Lake of the Woods and the Rocky Mountains; west of the Rockies, the convention established joint occupation of the Oregon Country by both parties. A geographical oversight resulted in the creation of the Northwest Angle.
Although the Convention of 1818 settled the boundary from the point of view of the non-Aboriginal powers, neither the United Kingdom nor the United States was immediately sovereign over the territories on its side of the line: effective control still rested with the local nations, mainly the Métis, Assiniboine, Lakota and Blackfoot. Their sovereignty was gradually ceded by conquest and treaty during the several decades that followed. Among these nations, the 49th parallel was nicknamed the Medicine Line because of its seemingly magical ability to prevent U.S. soldiers from crossing it.
In the 1844 U.S. presidential election, the Democratic Party asserted that the northern border of the Oregon Territory should be 54°40′, later reflected in the 1846 slogan "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!" However, the Oregon boundary dispute was settled diplomatically in the 1846 Oregon Treaty. This agreement divided the Oregon Country between British North America and the United States by extending the 49th parallel boundary to the west coast, ending in the Strait of Georgia; it then circumvents Vancouver Island through Boundary Pass, Haro Strait, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This had the side-effect of isolating Point Roberts, Washington.
As border
A typical boundary marker, one of many along the 49th parallel. This one divides Blaine, Washington from Surrey, British Columbia.Although parts of Vancouver Island and parts of Eastern Canada are located south of the 49th parallel, and parts of the United States (Alaska, Northwest Angle) are located north of it, the term 49th parallel is sometimes used as a nickname for the entire Canada-U.S. border. This can be misleading, since many of Canada's most populated regions (and about 72% of the national population) are located south of the 49th parallel, including the two largest cities Toronto (44° north) and Montreal (46° north), the federal capital Ottawa (45.25° north) and the capital cities of all provinces except the Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba), these being the only three provinces entirely north of the 49th parallel. The three Maritime provinces are each located entirely south of the parallel; however, the vast majority of Canadian territory lies north of it.
Parts of the 49th parallel were originally surveyed using astronomical techniques that did not take into account slight departures of the Earth's shape from a simple ellipsoid, or the deflection of the plumb-bob by differences in terrestrial mass. Although the surveys were subject to such limitations of early to mid 19th-century technology, extremely accurate results were obtained. However, in some places the surveyed 49th parallel is as much as several hundred feet from the actual geographical 49th parallel for the currently adopted datum, WGS84. The Digital Chart of the World (DCW), which uses the Clarke 1866 ellipsoid, reports the border on average at latitude 48° 59′ 51″ north, roughly 270 metres (886 ft) south of the modern 49th parallel. It ranges between 48° 59′ 25″ and 49° 0′ 10″ north, respectively 810 metres (2,657 ft) and 590 metres (1,936 ft) on either side of the average. In any case, the Earth's North Pole moves around slightly, notionally moving the 49th and other parallels with it; see polar motion.
As per treaty, lines between original established monuments (1861) are straight lines on the chord, rather than curved lines on the tangent, which generally keeps the boundary some distance from 49 degrees north.
In 1909 the United States, United Kingdom and Canada signed and ratified a treaty confirming the original survey lines as the official and permanent international border. Nevertheless, the difference of the survey from the geographical 49th parallel was argued in front of the Washington Supreme Court in the case of State of Washington v. Norman, under the premise that Washington did not properly incorporate the portions of land north of the geographical 49th parallel, as laid out by detailed GPS surveying. The court decided against the premise, ruling that the internationally surveyed boundary also served as the state boundary, regardless of its actual position.
Ordnance Survey of Great Britain
The British national grid reference system uses the point 49° N, 2° W as its true origin. 49°00′00″N 2°00′00″W / 49.0000°N 2.0000°W[2]
See also
- 48th parallel north
- 50th parallel north
- Boundary Lake (Manitoba/North Dakota)
- Canada-U.S. border
- Northwest Angle (northern Lake of the Woods County)
- Point Roberts, Washington
- Oregon boundary dispute
- Pig War, 1859
- War of 1812
References
- ^ http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/Dur_OneYear.php
- ^ "The true origin". Welcome to OS Net. Southampton: Ordnance Survey. 2007-09-04. http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/gps/information/coordinatesystemsinfo/guidetonationalgrid/page2.html. Retrieved 13 August 2009.
External links
- Washington v. Norman from FindLaw
Circles of latitude / Meridians 
145°145°65°75°Categories:- 1846 establishments
- Borders of U.S. states
- Canada–United States border
- Geographic history of the United States
- Lines of latitude
- Surveying
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