Good Question: Where Do Mile Markers Start?

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- On the drive back from your Fourth of July destination, you probably passed a lot of mile markers on the highway.

They let us know exactly where we are along a long stretch of road. But when you look at the number on the sign, it's hard to know exactly where those numbers come from.

Melanie in St. Louis Park wondered: Where do mile markers start?

Josh Suess is a cartographer with Hudson Map Company in Minneapolis. He says our highway mile numbers start at the state border.

Mile number one is always in the west or the south. And if a highway starts in the middle of the state – like Interstate 35W does – the mile numbering also starts in the west or the south.

The idea for mile markers started during the Roman Empire. There is a monument in Rome called the Golden Milestone, from a time when all roads literally did lead to Rome.