NJDEP - NJGS - Bulletin 66, Mapping Digest for New Jersey, 1965

first to legalize this major change in the art of plane surveying andproperty description.Some of the most vigorous opposition to the enactment of this legislationcame from representatives of Title Companies who feared thatproperty descriptions would become unnecessarily and dangerously abbreviatedwhen based solely upon the coordinates of land corners. Inorder to satisfy these objections, the final draft contained among otheramendments a provision which made it clear that those engaged in realestate transactions are not required to accept descriptions based whollyupon coordinate values (par. 4, p. 9).The uses of plane coordinates are many and varied and each passingyear adds to the total. Since every control monument in a system servesas a witness to every other monument, the reestablishment of lost cornerswith certainty is perhaps one of the most important benefits to bederived from this method. In the event that a corner must be reestablished,a traverse from the nearest pair of stations to the vicinity of thelost corner and closure upon another pair of stations will enable the surveyorto redefine the corner by a simple computation for azimuth anddistance from the traverse points. The New Jersey State HighwayDepartment uses the coordinate system to establish alignments andis assured of 1:10,000 accuracy or better for any starting point. Airsurvey firms are constantly using control for mapping work within theState borders, and private engineering concerns establish coordinate positionsfrom the New Jersey system for bridges, tunnels, etc.The surveying profession as a whole is using coordinates in increasingamounts; many subdivisions, municipal and county lines, and even smallparcelg are now coordinated. At a future date when control density andmaintenance can satisfy the needs of a large 9roportion of the population,the use" of compass bearings will become pass6, except for thosecases in which old compass traverse lines must be retraced. The surveyorsof future generations will not be encumbered with the difficultieswhich presently beset the profession, court squabbles will be greatlyreduced, and property holders in general will be in a better legal positionwhen their land boundaries do not depend upon the vagaries ofthe earth's magnetic field.SELECTEDREFEREI_CES1. Cook, George H., Topo#raphy, Magnetism, Climate, Vol. 1, Reportof the State Geologist (Trenton: John L. Murphy Publishing Co.,1888).2. Kissam, Phillp, Surveying [or Civil Engineers (New York: Mc-Graw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1956).3. N.J. Division of Geology and Topography, Work o/ the NewJersey Geodetic Control Survey, Bulletin 46, Geologic Series (Trenton:1938).7NEW JERSEY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY