Does anyone know what small plaques on sidewalks that say “Monument Do Not Remove” (like this one) are for? It stands to reason that a monument would indicate what it was a monument to.
I don’t think it’s a monument “to” anything, it’s probably the use of the word “monument” in the sense of “boundary marker”.
it honors the sidewalk which in order to help you lets itself be exposed to the elements. a sacrifice that deserves recognition.
or it could be a survey marker.
The free dictionary Monument - definition of monument by The Free Dictionary has as one of its definitions :
5. An object, such as a post or stone, fixed in the ground so as to mark a boundary or position.
From the pic, it is probably and old, old survey marker.
Survey monuments are placed to use as a control for other surveys. It’s used to tie everything together.
Survey marker was my first guess until I saw the thing.
The markers I’ve seen all have a specific point on them - if it is a rock in the middle of nowhere, a chiseled ‘X’ is on the surface. In the city, you can see brass markers with its location and an engraved ‘X’ in the center.
That was made in a shop and could have easily been engraved. Even if cheap, a chisel and hammer is not that much trouble (especially if you just spent 4 days throwing a line from several miles away).
The text is on the removable cover of a cast iron sleeve that surrounds a land survey marker (monument), below the base ground level. You can see the seam around its perimeter. Its designation as a “monument” probably means that it is a permanent marker for large area surveys or it may be a “benchmark” of known elevation above sea level, a datum used in many land (cadastral) surveys.