Photographing the American 'Grid,' One Square Mile Per Frame

The “grid”—that latticework that divvies America’s fields, forests, and towns into perfect square-mile sections—was Thomas Jefferson’s brainchild for apportioning Western territories acquired after the Revolutionary War. Yet he never had the pleasure of seeing his plan from its clearest and most mesmerizing view: from above.

But his grid lives on, and aerial and satellite photography offer new ways to see the American checkerboard. A clever Instagram account (aptly named the Jefferson Grid) presents a curated view, one square at a time. The account’s owner, an Israeli photography student, posts snapshots of square-mile demarcations almost daily. Snipped from Google Earth, the images (perusable in “grid view,” naturally) show the diversity of landscapes and land uses that conform to the plan, abstracted from whatever they’re like on the ground.