geomancy or behind the beltway

Ostensibly more clearly delineated than London (though a collection of guardian City Dragons were erected in the 1960s on the edges of the generally agreed upon limits of the city corporation), the diamond-shaped cordon of two-score boundary stones that cleaves out the US capital from neighbouring Maryland and Virginia—though highly visible as the fimbriation on a map, the rectilinear character of it looking out of place with most territories being bounded by natural obstacles—has also a physical manifestation that’s been neglected and is easily overlooked. What could be considered the oldest federal monuments have due zoning changes and land-use now find themselves surrounded by parking lots, on residential lawns, in wooded areas or destroyed altogether. It seems to me there’s maybe some kind of secret magic—either for keeping evil in or out—that ought to be reverenced by at least preserving the old markers.