If you sail a mere 6 nautical miles down the Thames River from London to Greenwich, you'll find the place where the world divides vertically into two halves--you'll see a stainless steel line, about four inches wide, set down in the concrete to mark 0-degrees longitude. It's called the Prime Meridian. In the courtyard of the Old Royal Observatory (founded in 1675), the old astronomical prime meridian was once defined as the center of the transit instument inside the observatory. On one side of the line, you're in the Eastern Hemisphere. On the other, you're in the Western Hemisphere. In Edmonds, WA, USA, we are at Longitude
-122.377355200000010000; that is, about 122.4 degrees west of the Prime Meridian. (At 180 degrees east or west of it, you would be half way around the world.) It's where the world's time zones originate with Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). In Edmonds, we are 8 hours behind (later than) GMT. I've always wanted to straddle that imaginary line--it's a magical place, split, like us.
Whoopee! Show me!
West (left), East (right)
One foot, one hand in each hemisphere!
You buy tickets to stand here for photos
Cruising on the Thames River passing The Tower
Toward the Old Royal Observatory
The Old Royal Observatory
Flamsteed House and the Red Ball, where the Prime Meridian marker is located
View downhill toward the Thames and London
Newer London, the financial center
Behind the National Maritime Museum
Nancy boards the boat for the return cruise upriver
About to pass under the Tower Bridge (1894) with The Shard (2012) in the background
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