ZERO MILESTONE
The Zero Milestone takes the place of the itinerary column planned by L’Enfant for a place 1 mile east of the Capitol, “from which all distances of places through the continent were to be calculated.” That column never was built.
The Zero Milestone is immediately south of the White House grounds. It is a block of granite 4 feet high with a bronze compass design on top, and stands on the meridian of the District of Columbia. The monument shows on the street side the designation Zero Milestone, with the insignia of the Motor Transport Corps, U. S. Army. The inscriptions on the other three sides show that it constitutes a point from which distances may be measured on highways of the United States radiating from Washington, and that it was the starting point of the transcontinental motor-transport convoys over the Lincoln and the Bankhead Highways in 1919 and 1920, respectively. The monument was authorized by act of Congress approved June 5, 1920. It was designed by Horace W. Peaslee, architect, of Washington.