{"id":675,"date":"2013-08-11T04:59:12","date_gmt":"2013-08-11T04:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/?page_id=675"},"modified":"2013-08-11T04:59:12","modified_gmt":"2013-08-11T04:59:12","slug":"the-monument-and-buoys","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/near-by-morgan\/the-monument-and-buoys\/","title":{"rendered":"The “Monument” and Buoys"},"content":{"rendered":"

Morgan Maps \u2013 The Monument and Buoys<\/h3>\n
\"Map<\/a>

Location of the Monument and Buoys from the 1887 Joint Boundary Commission Report.<\/p><\/div>\n

One result of the decisions of the 1887 Joint Boundary Commission (see to-be-reposted write-up), which defined the still in effect state boundary lines across and under Raritan Bay between the states of New Jersey and New York, was something called \u201cThe Monument\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the time of the commission it was common practice to place inscribed granite monuments at key points along the NJ\/NY boundary to mark the boundary.\u00a0 Naturally putting a solid granite monument on water was not possible and required a different approach.\u00a0 They needed something which would float. At the eleventh meeting of the Joint Boundary Commission held on October 31, 1887 at 47 Montgomery Street, Jersey City, NJ, the commissioners decided \u201cto use iron for casing the permanent monument.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the following (12th<\/sup>) meeting on November 30, 1887, Lieut. G. C. Hanus (US Navy representing New York) indicated to the commission \u201c\u2026 the position of the permanent beacon has been properly located on the ground\u2026 It is marked by five stakes, the center one having a red flag nailed to it.\u00a0 As the position is very important, I subsequently planted a second-class wooden spar-buoy on this spot, with the aid of the light-house tender. It is not likely that the ice will carry this buoy away, as it is well moored to a heavy stone anchor.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The \u201cMonument\u201d Marking the Boundary Line Between New Jersey and New York on Raritan Bay, Circa 1919.<\/p><\/div>\n

You can see the position of \u201cThe Monument\u201d on the map at the spot where it says \u201cPermanent Mont.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this same meeting, regarding the buoys which were also to be placed on the boundary line defined by \u201cMorgan 2\u201d and the Romer Stone Beacon, Lieut. Hanus indicated \u201cThrough the kindness of the Light-House Board, I was enabled to plant all the buoys without much difficulty\u2026 we had no difficulty in dropping the buoys in the desired places on the boundary line. The buoy nearest the monument was placed in the position marked on the map.\u00a0 It is a second-class wooden buoy.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 The next four buoys were \u201ciron spar-buoy of the third class\u2026All the above buoys are painted white above the line of floatation and green under water<\/i>\u201d and the seventh buoy was a \u201cwooden can, and can be replaced by an iron spar.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

The permanent \u201cmonument\u201d was eventually put in the bay at the intersection of the Great Beds\/Waackaack Beacon line and the \u201cMorgan 2\u201d\/Romer Stone Beacon line where it remains today.\u00a0 In the days before electronic navigation, this monument provided a visual reference point to navigators and was especially necessary since the boundary line changed direction at this point.\u00a0 Great Beds Lighthouse served a similar function as the boundary also changed direction at that spot.<\/p>\n

Putting a \u201cPermanent Mont.\u201d, i.e., PermanentMonument, on water required a different approach though it still was to have \u201cState Boundary Line, New York and New Jersey\u201d engraved on it.<\/p>\n

This photo shows what \u201cThe Monument\u201d looked like circa 1919.\u00a0 It was to have \u201cState Boundary Line, New York and New Jersey\u201d inscribed on it.\u00a0 I\u2019m hoping to one day get an updated photo of what is located at this site from someone who still boats about in Raritan Bay.\u00a0 I don\u2019t recall seeing the globe on the monument and doubt that the globe would still be on it well over a century after the monument was put in place.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a kid, when we went boating in the bay I knew of \u201cThe Monument\u201d but really didn\u2019t have any clue as to its significance or usage.\u00a0 I doubt anyone else knew much about it either at the time or, perhaps, even now.\u00a0 Hopefully this posting will make this clear.<\/p>\n

Originally posted on March 21, 2010.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Morgan Maps \u2013 The Monument and Buoys One result of the decisions of the 1887 Joint Boundary Commission (see to-be-reposted write-up), which defined the still in effect state boundary lines across and under Raritan Bay between the states of New Jersey and New York, was something called \u201cThe Monument\u201d. At the time of the commission […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":315,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"page-templates\/full-width.php","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-675","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":679,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/675\/revisions\/679"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}