Borden Base Line

The baseline measurement was the first project of its kind undertaken in America, and essential for Massachusetts' pioneering Trigonometrical Survey, performed under chief engineer Robert Treat Paine.

Its careful measurement was critical since the accuracy of the whole triangulation network depended on it.

His apparatus was 50 feet (15 m) long, enclosed in a tube, and employed with four compound microscopes.

Borden was a highly competent engineer whose ability was widely recognized.

According to the Valley Historians, the south end is still marked by a copper plug set into a boulder, located in the back yard of the house at 30 Bridge Street, Hatfield, Massachusetts.

Borden Base Line
American Society of Civil Engineers plaque at the Tilton Library in South Deerfield