Prime Meridian And Antimeridian Instant

I am talking, of course, about the and its lesser-known twin, the Antimeridian .

But why Greenwich? In the late 1800s, sea travel was booming, but navigation was chaos. Every country used its own "prime meridian" (Paris, Berlin, Washington D.C.—everyone wanted to be the center). Finally, in 1884, 25 nations met in Washington D.C. and voted: Greenwich won. Mostly because the U.S. had already adopted it for its own rail networks, and 72% of the world’s shipping already used it. At the Greenwich observatory, you can literally stand with one foot in the Eastern Hemisphere and one foot in the Western Hemisphere. It is one of the most photographed feet-in-two-places spots on Earth. There is a giant steel line embedded in the courtyard, and a green laser shoots northward into the London sky every night. The Antimeridian: The Land That Time Forgot Now, spin the globe exactly 180 degrees away from Greenwich. You have arrived at the Antimeridian (180° longitude). prime meridian and antimeridian

Let’s walk the line. If you stand at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, you are standing at the center of the world. At least, that is what 19th-century cartographers decided. I am talking, of course, about the and