Talk:Washington State Route 539

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Washington State Route 539 has been listed as one of the Engineering and technology good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Review: February 26, 2021. (Reviewed version).

A fact from Washington State Route 539 appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 20 March 2021, and was viewed approximately 2,066 times (disclaimer) (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Washington State Route 539 is named the "Guide Meridian" because it follows a surveying meridian?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2021/March. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Washington State Route 539.

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No curves

Is this the only highway in Washington state without any curves? I believe so, and this might be worth mentioning. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.42.95.233 (talk • contribs) 05:34, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

SR 543 in Blaine is also due north-south, except for right around the customs area and the ramps to/from I-5. -- NORTH ^talk 07:59, 21 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

While flatland streets and highways in Washington follow the underlying grid-lines, many highways in urban, rural or mountainous areas curve along topographic features (coastline, rivers, hills, mountains). HalFonts (talk) 20:43, 12 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Assessment

This article would be up to B-class if it weren't for the lack of the junction list. C L — 19:06, 7 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, since there is no junction list, it is Start-Class, because C-Class must have all required elements but are shorter in the RD and History. ~~ This page was edited by ĈĠ 15:10, 12 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

JCT list added, C-Class. ~~ C o m p u t e r G u y 20:00, 21 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Why the name?

The name "Guide Meridian" implies that it lies on an important survey meridian, but the relevant meridian for Washington and Oregon is the Willamette Meridian several miles to the west. So where did the name come from? —Tamfang (talk) 04:37, 8 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It is my understanding that the Willamette Meridian is so far west in this portion of Washington State that it runs through a significant portion of water. Therefore, an auxiliary guide meridian was established 12 miles east for practical reasons.Crashbox (talk) 14:57, 5 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Other info re: The {Willamette?} "Guide Meridian St" Hwy 539, Whatcom Co, WA.

Thanks to those who started this. (It's an important part of local history. I'll try to research and improve it). Re: The questions of other parallel Guide streets vs the true baseline: See the Wikipedia article: Willamette Stone#Streets

Other streets that follow or parallel the meridian

   In Whatcom County, Washington, near Birch Bay, Washington, Jackson Road south of the bay, and Harborview Road north of the bay, both follow the meridian for a total of about five miles.
   In Whatcom County, Washington, Guide Meridian Road (State Route 539) is named after the Guide Meridian between R2E and R3E, 12 miles east of the Willamette Meridian.

Note also: The monument to Land Surveyors in the Fountain Park, 2398 Meridian St, Bellingham, WA

HalFonts (talk) 20:29, 12 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your interest in the article. I would advise against adding other roads on the Willamette baseline to this article, as the scope is meant to solely include the section of Guide Meridian between Bellingham and the Canadian border. Sounder Bruce 23:01, 12 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by SL93 (talk) 01:53, 17 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

(

Comment or view
Article history

)

... that Washington State Route 539 is named the "Guide Meridian" because it follows a surveying meridian? Source: Bellingham Herald
- ALT1:... that a major bridge on Washington State Route 539 was opened days before the 2010 Winter Olympics began in nearby Vancouver? Source: Bellingham Herald

Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Stone Street (Manhattan)

Improved to Good Article status by SounderBruce (talk). Self-nominated at 05:17, 27 February 2021 (UTC).[reply]

Article is a recent GA, is long enough, and stable. I find the first hook the most interesting. I couldn't verify the name due to a paywall with the source. Could you provide an excerpt? For such a claim though, I would hope there would be a better source to use than a newspaper article that appears to casually mention this while talking about a different subject (a nearby park). Grk1011 (talk) 16:54, 2 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Grk1011: The clipping and page should be free to view without an account. This was the only source I could find, as this is a niche subject, but is reliable and still of adequate quality. Sounder Bruce 22:33, 2 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@SounderBruce:, I'm having some trouble with the ref. I think I can read it (right side, lower corner), but it doesn't seem to explicitly state that Route 539 is called the Guide Meridian. Can you clarify? Grk1011 (talk) 19:04, 3 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Grk1011: You can click through to see the full page. It doesn't specifically call out 539 because the name continues beyond the state designation. Sounder Bruce 04:33, 4 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Would you approve of this ALT: ... that Washington State Route 539, also known as the "Guide Meridian", follows a surveying meridian? Grk1011 (talk) 14:19, 4 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

This wouldn't be notable, as any straight-line road follows some sort of survey meridian. Named guide meridians are less common, and having a road named for one is very rare. Sounder Bruce 02:13, 5 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I'd like to wait for a second opinion then. I don't feel that In Whatcom County, Guide Meridian is exactly 12 miles east of, and parallel to, the Willamette Meridian properly backs up the claim. Why "Guide"? Where I live we don't have many straight roads, so it's not very obvious to me that any straight road would need to follow a meridian. Grk1011 (talk) 15:15, 5 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Grk1011: "Guide Meridian" (all capitalized) in the newspaper source refers to the road's name, not a generic "guide meridian", so it should support the statement. Sounder Bruce 06:43, 6 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Grk1011 and SounderBruce: It's been a few days since this was last commented on so I thought that I would add in my opinion after I saw Grk1011's request for one. While the newspaper article does not explicitly state that the Guide Meridian is also WA Route 539, it does point out the location of the road that correlates with where we would find the highway designated as WA Route 539. The references in the "early roads" and "state and national highway" sections back up that the two names apply to the same route. ❯❯❯ Mccunicano ☕️ 01:58, 9 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

After contacting the original reviewer I will be wrapping up this review. Both hooks should be good to go per Grk1011's initial review and my last comment. Nice work! ❯❯❯ Mccunicano ☕️ 14:42, 11 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]