Photographer captures unseen America by documenting the landscape along the 40th parallel from sea to shining sea


An imaginary line bisects America, from sea to shining sea.



The 40th parallel north passes through two mountain ranges and a dozens states in the U.S. as it circles the globe.



Photographer Bruce Myren was fascinated by what he saw as an arbitrary system of measurement, designed to help map the world, an the 40th parallel itself, which runs through a large swath of the country.



Since 1998, he has been making journeys across the east-west 40th parallel and taking photographs at every place where the latitudinal line intersects and north-south longitudinal line.



East: This is the easternmost point where the 40th parallel cross the United State, Normandy Beach, New Jersey, N 40° 00' 00" W 74° 03' 32"

Discovery: Bruce Myren hopes to document the changing landscape of America through his portraits. A golf course in Riverton, New Jersey, is seen here, coordinates N 40° 00' 00" W 75° 00' 00"

Long term: Mr Myren began the project in 1998 and has continued shooting landscape portraits in the same way for more than a decade. Gap, Pennsylvania, N 40° 00' 00" W 76° 00' 00", is seen here

The quest began an the Jersey Shore on Normandy Beach, coordinates N 40° 00’ 00” W 74° 03’ 32” -- the easternmost place the imaginary line crosses land in the United States.



Mr Myren says he became fascinated by the geographic marker when he was hiking in Colorado. From a mountaintop, he could see a road that stretched clear across the 40th parallel as far as he could see.



But it also had political power, he said.



'It was the baseline for creating townships and homesteads, and was a key marker to the settlement of the West. I had a project,' he wrote on his blog.

'I was going to document these arbitrary points of human measurement and the landscape found at the intersections.'

Rural America: The 40th parallel passes through few major cities as it bisects the nation -- instead showing off suburbs and mountains and ruolling farm fields

Civilization: The church in Fredericktown Hill, Pennsylvania, seen here in 2006, looks is elongated by Mr Myren's panorama

City life: This is a neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio, seen in 1999, at N 40° 00' 00" W 83° 00' 00"

Great Plains: In Fillmore, Missouri, the nation flattens out and opens up for miles and miles as the Great Plains roll on as far as they eye can see. This image was captured in 2007 at N 40° 00' 00" W 95° 00' 00"

The project, which is still ongoing, will include 52 images when it's finished -- one for each point of longitude that intersect 40th parallel, plus one for the easternmost point in the country and one for the westernmost point along the line.

The points cross every 53 miles or so and they're not terrible difficult to find.



U.S. 40, once a major east-west highway, roughly follows the parallel.



Armed with a handheld GPS device, Mr Myren takes out the exact point and then captures a panorama shot of the landscape with a 8x10 Deardorff camera.

The camera is a similar model to those used in the 1870s by pioneering geographers to mapped the line from California east to Colorado.

Lonely: A run-down grain silo is the only thing that breaks up the lonely expanse of prairie in Ludell, Kansas, N 40° 00' 00" W 101° 00' 00"

Grand: The mountains tower over the sagebrush in Meeker, Colorado, N 40° 00' 00" W 108° 00' 00"

Towering: The Rockies are one of two mountain ranges that the 40th parallel cross in the United State. Rangely, Colorado, is seen here, N 40° 00' 00" W 109° 00' 00"