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what you see here is a photo of a very small piece of a very large map. i really wish i knew more about the Coastal Survey. but this is what i do know.
the map is entitled as a Progress 'sketch', showing at the time of its publishing in 1873, how much of the entire Chesapeake Bay had been surveyed by the field mapping section of the department, The United States Coastal Survey. the sketch map was hanging on a wall of my home, until i recently put it 'on loan' with the Henricus Foundation at Dutch Gap, Chesterfield County, Virginia, and it measures around 2.5 feet wide and 3.5 feet tall. it is hanging now on a wall near the cubicle of one of the interpreters, and needs to be taken down to the gift shop and hung there when i can get back out there again.
what i do know is that numerous of the best and brightest men graduating from the U S Military Academy at West Point, New York, would almost automatically gravitate to the Army Corps of Engineers and that the U S Coast Surveys borrowed from this source of talent rather liberally. a gentleman named E. O. C. Ord, who was present as a Union Army corps commanding general, appeared in the parlor of Wilmer McLean, at Appomattox Courthouse on 9 April, 1865, as Lee signed the surrender papers. from the annual reports of field activities of the Coast Survey map-makers, it can be noticed that Ord had gotten a job on one of the survey crews and one of his first assignments had been mapping the James River in the early 1850's.
those folks who are interested in Colonial Heights history can begin to enjoy the tale that unfolds herewith: if you look carefully at the Appomattox River section of the map, you will notice a circle with lines spoking to the north, east, and south, and an annotation, "Brick House", that shows the map historian that the Coastal Survey mappers used one of the house chimneys as a reference point. also on the west banks of the Appo can be seen circles labeled "Walthall", "Hare", "Archer", and "Rosylyn", and even inside the city of Petersburg are circles "Pres. Ch.", and "Meth. Ch.".
this is where the story gets technically interesting...taking a look at the map just to the northeast of Petersburg you can see a thickly drawn line labeled "BASE", not due to any precognition of Fort Lee being nearby oneday in the distant future. a shortline railroad venture, the City Point Railroad, had been run through from Petersburg to City Point, that was apparently financed by merchants of the two communities who were a bit tired of the fact that the siltating of the river prevented many ocean going vessels from getting all the way up-river to Petersburg's wharves. goods and tobacco hogsheads had to be loaded onto smaller barges to navigate this piece of the stream. why not link things up with the newfangled railroad cars, and bypass the good-old-boys running the river barge companies? so the map-makers were savy enough to use the clearing of this railroad from a point just across the road from the present-day Va Power center, thence up the arrow-straight right-of-way, to just another point just shy of where the rails crossed Harrison's Creek. they measured the heck out of this line, anchored on each end with a small stone monument sunk in the ground with a 'x' chiselled on the top, pulling right on the ground surface, marking the 'pulls' with small nails, dozens of times, applied in their calculations the proper temperature corrections for their brass metal chains, until they had ascertained that the God's-Mind distance was no more than a hair's-width of difference from the calculated-on-paper distance.
then the survey crew would build a wood-frame tower over each monument, usually about 75 to 100 feet tall. a hole was in the platform flooring at the top and a wood frame was constructed right over this hole. a large brass theodolite instrument was then mounted on the small frame, and a 2 pound plumb-bob was suspended via a strong piano wire from the center of the instrument down the 33 yards to the 'x' in the stone monument. then the crew sets an oil lamp with a shiny reflector (you've seen an example of one if you have ever been to a Cracker Barrel restaurant) onto the center-plumbed upper frame of the other tower, waits till twilight, climbs up to the top platform of the opposing tower, levels up the theodolite perfectly using the vial bubbles mounted on the plate of the instrument, centering the plumb-bob right over the chiseled 'x' down below, and begins the tedious task of turning a multitude of 'azimuth' angles from the north star to the center of the oil light on the tower a mile away.
i do not know the exact procedure involved in this operation, but can reasonably guess this process involved doing something akin to what i would do with a K&E transit years ago when i first began to learn the science and art of surveying at the highway department in 1973. the crew would tur

Viswatej Avutu, who goes by Vishu, is a Dean’s Honored Graduate in Biochemistry. He is also a member of the Dean’s Scholars Honors Program. During his time at UT Vishu has received an astonishing number of scholarships and grants, including an Unrestricted Endowed Presidential Scholarship, the American Chemical Society’s International Research Experience for Undergraduates Scholarship, and the Virginia and Ernest Cockrell Jr. Scholarship in Engineering. He also received the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst, a scholarship that allowed him to pursue research in science and engineering in Germany.

Vishu started his work in Dr. Andrew Ellington’s lab (which he terms “Ellingtonia”) in the summer of 2007, and since then he has collaborated on numerous projects and completed an honors thesis.

Vishu’s original research work in Ellingtonia involved the efficient synthesis of aptamers. Aptamers are nucleic acid molecules that bind to a biological target. If that biological target is important in human health, the efficacy of aptamer binding can have important medical implications. While working with Dr. Ellington, Vishu challenged the traditional method of aptamer synthesis. The traditional selection process is preformed in vitro, that is, without the use of an intact, living model system. Instead, Vishu developed a method of aptamer selection that could be performed in vivo or in the living animal. He identified their localization within different cell lines and sought to improve the effectiveness of a potentially therapeutic aptamer.

Not only does Vishu investigate new areas of science, he helps others to understand and master challenging material. He says that some of his best experiences at UT were while working as a teaching assistant. He says that work taught him “the importance of understanding something, not just knowing it.” Vishu also spent time helping his peers at the University of Texas Teaching and Learning Center. In his free time he worked at the Round Rock Medical Center, training emergency room volunteers.

This summer, Vishu has a research fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. There he plans to continue the research he has started at UT Austin. Next fall, Vishu will pursue a degree in medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. Vishu chose Life in Medicine: A Literary Anthology and Clinically Oriented Anatomy for his books.