Another interesting example of marks and boundaries in the physical world superseding surveys and agreements is the USA/Canada border west of the great lakes. While officially the 49th parallel, the border was manifested in the real world as a series of straight lines between hundreds of monuments. These were set down without GPS, and at times wound around obstacles, so there's a fair degree of variability in how close these monuments actually are to 49deg: http://www.confluence.org/country.php?id=3#NOTES
The zigzag is actually fairly easy to see on Google maps, because the border is maintained by both the US and Canada, clear cutting the lines in forested areas. This highly visible physical boundary is the true national border.
The zigzag is actually fairly easy to see on Google maps, because the border is maintained by both the US and Canada, clear cutting the lines in forested areas. This highly visible physical boundary is the true national border.
https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/a-not-so-st...