Usually a straight line is the shortest distance between two points, but this isn't the case for photographer Bruce Myren. Since 1998 he's been documenting an imaginary line known as the 40th parallel which practically bisects the country. The N 40° 00’ 00” line which was a key marker for the western settlement travels throughout 12 states, starts from the shores of New Jersey to the Californian Coast. 
N 40¡ 00' 00" W 74¡ 03' 32", Normandy Beach, New Jersey, 1998
"The core idea of this project came to me while I was living for a year in Boulder, Colorado in 1991. A friend and I were sitting on top of Flagstaff Mountain and gazing at the scene. I noticed that the road we drove up, Baseline Road went east in a straight line as far as I could see. I asked my friend if he knew why it was called this. He replied that it was the 40th parallel of latitude, and went on to explain that it was the baseline for creating townships and homesteads, and was a key marker to the settlement of the West. I had a project: I was going to document these arbitrary points of human measurement and the landscape found at the intersections. "
N 40¡ 00' 00" W 83¡ 00' 00", Columbus, Ohio, 1999
With the aid of a Magellan GPS unit he's been tracking down the longitudinal points and photographing them in Kodak Ektachrome with his 8x10 Deardorff camera. Trying to replicate the viewers field of vision, he takes three pictures and prints them as a panoramic. As this as ongoing project, he has shot 28 points and plans to photograph all 50 across America.
N 40¡ 00' 00" W 97¡ 00' 00", Hollenberg, Kansas, 2007
As with any project, Myren won't have as much time as he'd like to finish. It's only a matter time before Ektachrome joins Kodachrome in the inevitable film graveyard. A successful Kickstarter campaign is helping him accomplish his task by giving him the resources travel to and photograph these locations, as well as make a book of his complete journey.
N 40¡ 00' 00" W 109¡ 00' 00", Rangely, Colorado, 2000