Every distance in Detroit is measured from the spot under your feet, the very center of the city. In June 1805 a fire destroyed nearly all of the old French town. Judge Augustus Woodward seized the chance to rebuild on a bold radiating plan inspired by Washington, D.C., with grand avenues spreading out like spokes from central hubs.
Surveyors fixed the Point of Origin right here, at the meeting of Woodward and Michigan Avenues, the zero mile from which distances were reckoned, which is why Eight Mile Road lies exactly eight miles north. Today Campus Martius is a lively public square, created in 2004, with a beach, an ice rink in winter, and the city's official Christmas tree. Notice the marker, then Woodward running dead straight to the horizon, the other avenues fanning outward — the geometry of a city literally reborn from its own ashes.