DC's Zero Mile marker is a real zero

Is Ground Zero for U.S. highways really this stone in Washington, D.C.?

 Like most motorcyclists, historic highways interest me. If there's a hiking trail somewhere on an abandoned highway, I'm ready to walk. 

I'd love to ride Old Highway 66 someday, but it's a long way from my Royal Enfield. 

So, as a tourist recently in Washington, D.C., I was thrilled to come on a little block of stone in the middle of a sidewalk near the White House. 

It proudly proclaims itself the "Point for the measurement of distances from Washington on highways of the United States." 

Wow! That's cool, I thought. 

According to the National Park Service website:

"This four-foot-high shaft of pink granite stands on the north and south meridian of the District of Columbia. It is symbolically the official starting point for measurement of highway distances from Washington, DC.

"On July 7, 1919, the first transcontinental military motor convoy (to) San Francisco, California, started from this spot. On June 5, 1920, Congress authorized the erection of a permanent monument here."

That sounds pretty important.

But I wondered why I had never heard of the monument.

After all, it's right in front of the south view of the White House! You can't miss it, if you want to stand at the best place for a picture of yourself with the White House in the background.

It even turns out that the Second Transcontinental Motor Convoy also started from this point, on June 14, 1920. (The first is the more famous of the two convoys, because a young officer named Dwight Eisenhower joined that expedition.)

In fact, the little stone had been dedicated by the president at the time, Warren G. Harding. According to Richard F. Weingroff, of the Federal Highway Administration, Harding spoke of its importance:

"It marks the approximate meeting place of the Lincoln Highway and the Lee Highway; of the northern and southern systems of national roads. From it we may view the memorial to Lincoln and the home of Lee.* It marks the meeting point of those sections which once grappled in conflict, but now are happily united for all time in the bonds of national fraternity, of a single patriotism, and of a common destiny."

High hopes, if a little too much to expect from a rock the size of a drinking fountain.

The hopes might persist; but the whole "Zero" thing didn't work out.

Despite its claims, the Zero Point is pretty much a complete zero. Which explains why few people who bump into it have heard of it before.

WAMU 88.5, American University Radio, tells what actually happened, quoting Doug Hecox, a self-proclaimed history nerd and spokesperson for the Federal Highway Administration.

Basically, it suddenly seemed like a good time for everybody to get into the act. Marking highway mileage in the United States is a state function, not a job for the federal authorities.

About a month after the dedication, Tennessee decided to launch its own zero milestone. Then so did several other states. Virginia established a zero milestone in Capital Square in Richmond in 1929.

"So the entire premise between the Zero Milestone and its intention absolutely fizzled," Hecox said.

Weingroff, of the Federal Highway Administration, concludes:

"And so it stands. The Zero Milestone in Washington never became the American equivalent of Rome's Golden Milestone. Today, it remains in place, baffling tourists and serving mainly as a resting place for their belongings while they take photographs of each other standing in front of the White House. It is forgotten for the most part. Periodically, it is threatened with removal by the National Park Service as it considers options for revitalizing the Ellipse. But for historians, the Zero Milestone marks the place where 'a new era' began."

*At the time of the dedication, the former Custis-Lee mansion at Arlington Cemetery might have been visible over the treeline, at least to President Harding, who would have had an elevated view when he was inside the White House.