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The Twelve-Mile Circle is an approximately
circular arc Circular may refer to: * The shape of a circle * ''Circular'' (album), a 2006 album by Spanish singer Vega * Circular letter (disambiguation) ** Flyer (pamphlet), a form of advertisement * Circular reasoning, a type of logical fallacy * Circular ...
which forms most of the boundary between Pennsylvania and Delaware. It is not actually a circle, but rather a combination of different circular arcs that have been feathered together. It is nominally a
circle A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is con ...
with a supposed—yet in fact only approximate and variable— radius, centered in the town of
New Castle, Delaware New Castle is a city in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. The city is located six miles (10 km) south of Wilmington and is situated on the Delaware River. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 5,285. History New Castl ...
. In 1750, the center of the circle was fixed at the cupola of the courthouse in New Castle. The Twelve-Mile Circle continues into the Delaware River. A small portion of the circle, known as the "Arc Line," also forms part of the Mason-Dixon line, separating Delaware and Maryland. Two other small portions, although not actually demarcated until 1934, form parts of the boundary between the states of Delaware and New Jersey. Although the Twelve-Mile Circle is often claimed to be the only territorial boundary in the United States that is a true arc, many cities in the South (such as
Plains, Georgia Plains is a town in Sumter County, Georgia, United States. The population was 776 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Americus Micropolitan Statistical Area. Plains is best known as the birthplace and home of Jimmy Carter, the 39th president o ...
) also have circular boundaries. Its existence dates back to 1681, when Charles II granted a deed to
William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...
north of the already chartered Maryland. Charles created an exception, consisting of 12 miles around the town of New Castle and extending down the peninsula, as these lands were held by the
Duke of York Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of English (later British) monarchs. The equivalent title in the Scottish peerage was Du ...
, who had won them in conquest from the Dutch colonists. Later, on August 24, 1682, the Duke granted these lands to Penn as well, giving him: The boundaries of the circle were the focal point of the eighty-year Penn–Calvert Boundary Dispute. The fact that the circle extends into the Delaware River makes for an unusual territorial possession. Most territorial boundaries that follow watercourses split the water course between the two territories by one of two methods, either by the median line of the watercourse (the Grotian Method, after Hugo Grotius) or, more often, the center of the main flow channel, or
thalweg In geography and fluvial geomorphology, a thalweg or talweg () is the line of lowest elevation within a valley or watercourse. Under international law, a thalweg is the middle of the primary navigable channel of a waterway that defines the boun ...
(the lowest point in the stream channel). However, due to the text of the deed, within the Twelve-Mile Circle, all the Delaware River to the low-tide mark on the east ( New Jersey) side is territory of the state of Delaware (a similar condition exists between the states of Vermont and New Hampshire, with the border being defined as the west bank of the Connecticut River, leaving the river - and bridges - in sole possession of New Hampshire). New Jersey has often disputed this claim, as the rest of its territorial boundaries along the Delaware River are determined by the midline and thalweg methods. In 1813, Delaware's legislature passed an act deeding
Pea Patch Island Pea Patch Island is a small island, approximately 1 mi (1.6 km) long, in the U.S. state of Delaware, located in the mid channel of the Delaware River near its entrance into Delaware Bay. It is a low, marshy island, located in New Castle C ...
to the United States government, and in 1820 New Jersey disputed that they owned the island since it was primarily on the New Jersey side of the river. Attorney General William Wirt sided with Delaware. In the 1840s, the Pea Patch Island disagreement led to two conflicting circuit court decisions—the circuit of Delaware ruling that the entirety of the river (and its islands) belonged to Delaware, and the circuit in New Jersey ruling that the island had belonged to New Jersey, which had deeded it to Dr. Henry Gale, a citizen of New Jersey. At the recommendation of President James K. Polk, the parties agreed to arbitration, which resulted in a confirmation of Delaware's claim. The arbitration did not ultimately resolve the dispute, and it has been brought to the Supreme Court of the United States on several occasions (all titled '' New Jersey v. Delaware''), most notably in 1877, 1934, 1935, and 2007. The court's opinion for the 1934 case contained an extensive history of the claims to this territory, and the 1935 opinion memorably enjoined New Jersey and Delaware from ever disputing their jurisdictions again. Regardless of the Supreme Court's admonition to the two states against further litigation on this subject, they were back before the court as late as November 2005, when New Jersey's desire to approve plans by BP to build a liquefied natural gas terminal along the New Jersey shore of the Delaware River fell afoul of Delaware's Coastal Zone Act. The court on January 23, 2006, appointed a
special master In the law of the United States, a special master is generally a subordinate official appointed by a judge to ensure judicial orders are followed, or in the alternative, to hear evidence on behalf of the judge and make recommendations to the jud ...
to study the border dispute, and on March 21, 2008, it upheld his report, which largely supported Delaware's authority. Meanwhile, the Delaware House of Representatives considered a (symbolic) bill to call out the
National Guard National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. N ...
to safeguard the state's interests, while New Jersey legislators made comments about the battleship ''New Jersey'', moored upriver from the site.


Surveying the Circle

There are persistent rumors that
David Rittenhouse David Rittenhouse (April 8, 1732 – June 26, 1796) was an American astronomer, inventor, clockmaker, mathematician, surveyor, scientific instrument craftsman, and public official. Rittenhouse was a member of the American Philosophical Society a ...
, the famous astronomer and instrument-maker of Pennsylvania, surveyed the circle around New Castle, but this is likely not correct. The circle was first laid out by surveyors named Taylor and Pierson in 1701. The 1813 "Memoirs of the life of David Rittenhouse" by William Barton surmises that Rittenhouse was involved in such a survey in 1763, based on a letter in which Rittenhouse mentions being paid "for my attendance at New Castle," but there is no clear record of what, exactly, Rittenhouse was paid for. His biographer, Brooke Hindle, guessed that Rittenhouse assisted with latitude or longitude calculations.Brooke Hindle, ''David Rittenhouse'', Princeton University Press, 1964, pp. 20–21.


See also

* Penn–Calvert Boundary Dispute *
Wedge (border) The Wedge (or Delaware Wedge) is a tract of land along the borders of Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Ownership of the land was disputed until 1921; it is now recognized as part of Delaware. The tract was created primarily by the shortcomin ...
*
Transpeninsular Line The Transpeninsular Line (at approximately 38°27′ N) is a surveyed line, the eastern half of which forms the north–south border between Delaware and Maryland. The border turns roughly north from the midpoint of the line towards the Twelve-M ...
* Killcohook National Wildlife Refuge * Mason-Dixon line


References

{{Reflist, colwidth=35em Border irregularities of the United States Borders of Delaware Borders of Maryland Borders of New Jersey Borders of Pennsylvania Geography of Cecil County, Maryland Geography of Chester County, Pennsylvania Geography of Delaware County, Pennsylvania Geography of Maryland Geography of New Castle County, Delaware Geography of Salem County, New Jersey Internal territorial disputes of the United States