Surveying Roots

Surveying is at the very roots of the founding of our country, the United States of America.  Recently, I've been reading a terrific book about George Washington called Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow.  In the early chapters the author describes Washington's surveying work as a very young man.  That the father of our country personally did so much surveying, was something I'd forgotten about.

I grew up around the whole world of surveying.  My grandfather was a civil engineer who owned his own company.  Even though he was retired, he still did surveying work from time to time.  And even as a boy, I was pressed into his service alongside his crew to help with surveying jobs.  He did both land surveying throughout Texas and Oklahoma as well as offshore surveying on the Louisiana Gulf Coast.

Surveying Equipment Then

In those days, we had surveying equipment similar to what George Washington used.  No kidding!  A slide rule, note pad, and various manually adjusted surveying equipment mounted atop a tripod was what was used.  In brushy, rugged areas a large part of the job was clearing all the shrubbery, limbs, and jungle (not really, but it felt like it sometimes) away so he could see or get a site to run a line.  Some of the clearing work was part of my job in surveying.  Plus, I'd hold a position with a long pole that had markings on it so the surveying work of getting levels for the topographic map could be done.

Let me tell you, if you've never done anything like that in the hot Texas sun, it's tough work!  That's one of the reasons we'd get while it was still dark outside and arrive on site to start surveying early.  Another problem the hot sun caused was heat waves.  Through the surveying instruments, the hot air movements would often become so marked and strong that it made doing the surveying work nearly impossible.

ATV's were not yet around in those days.  So, we did lots of walking.  We'd drive as far as we could.  Then it was hoofing it with our equipment in tow....on our backs.

Surveying Equipment Now

My how things have changed in surveying!  I just mentioned the advent of all terrain vehicles.  They're powerful additions to hauling equipment and people and doing that fast.  In surveying, having ATV's greatly speeds up the whole land surveying process.

Another thing is GPS.  Having GPS increases the speed of surveying, too, although there are still accuracy issues.  One of the GPS drawbacks is heavy brush.

Before GPS came the people in surveying call a total station.  With satellite and cellular service combined with the digital or electronic age we're in now, surveying is a lot different.  Electronic data is calculated automatically and can even be transmitted to the home office right away.  It used to all have to be logged on paper in notes and then physically taken out of the field back to the office before the rest of the surveying work could even be started.

Surveying is a vital part of our society on quite a few fronts.  Without it or the people doing the surveying work, life would be a whole lot different than we know it, for sure.

A Day in the Life of a Land Surveyor

Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, has an excellent article that provides the history of surveying, some great photographs, and loads of links for further study and information.  Click SURVEYING to be taken to their page.