GGG: WD Gann's Gravestone Geometry - the diamond

Henri Bergson, "Creative Evolution", 1911

As I stood behind Mr. Gann's gravestone on June 21, 2015, I was aware of several geographic realities around me and I instinctively perceived others.  I knew that the great tree some 40 or so feet in front of me totally blocked a view of Lower Manhattan, most recognized by One World Trade Center, and a view to my left of the Statue of Liberty.  I knew these things for having walked past the great tree and having move back and forth to see these artifacts without obstruction by other lesser trees.  Here's the picture of that view on June 21:

But I instinctively perceived something else; a geometry which I've before mentioned, known to me out of instinct ….not out of my knowledge of reality (as I had known the location of One World Trade Center).  I perceived a geometry that the some number of stones to the left and right of me and in front of me were also aligned with Mr. Gann's stone and Lower Manhattan.  The Wood-Green Cemetery map showed them aligned with the laid out alignment of the hill and all the contiguous rows of graves (see it HERE).  But that was not the case.  There was some number of stones aligned perceptibly different, at some places, almost distastefully so.  But there wasn't anything I could, that day, do on the ground with such an ill formed notion.  I couldn't, from the ground, 'see' the arrangement of many stones placed over a distance spanning maybe 100 yards.  It was not until I later looked at the pictures I took that day and the Google Earth overhead views that the geometry I imagined that day was confirmed.

The above picture shows the view of that day that had the strongest hint of a geometry; I call it WD Gann's Diamond.  In the foreground and closest is Mr. Gann's stone (white arrow), mid view of the far left and right are two aligned stones with a stone further down the slope between the two mid stones.  You can see the trunk of the great tree between the two left most arrows.  Was it a diamond or two conjoined triangles?  Of course it was:

On the above you can see the diamond in red, subdivided width-wise by a red vector that creates two roughly equal equilateral triangles and subdivided length-wise by a yellow vector creating two elongated equilateral triangles or four right triangles.  It might not escape notice that the four stones, enumerated as 5, 8, 9 and 11, add to 33.  On the face of Mr. Gann's gravestone there are two rows of 3 dots…33.

You'll also notice that the entire diamond shape points to Lower Manhattan judging from the alignment square to Mr. Gann's stone which was aligned to Lower Manhattan.  And you'll notice that the stones 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 form a line that is facing the same direction as Mr. Gann's.

How close is the diamond to two equilateral triangles?  Lots of difficulty in measurement in finding that answer.  The stones are on a downward sloping hill and, since this is the surface of the spherical earth, its spherical trigonometry, not Euclidian geometry.  Not only that, stone orientations change over the 60 years since placement (Mr. Gann's was placed in 1955).  And finally, I, nor anyone else in 60 years to my knowledge, have not taken measurements at the site.  Google Earth will need to be used to make those measurements and an assumption of where to place the 'placemark' on each stone will have to be made.  Those limitations noted and assumptions made, the above red diamond are the exact placements I made to derive the following table of distances:

One assumption I made was to place the place mark at the edge of the top of each stone (the border between the white top and the shadow of the stone which is card).  That makes lines 5-8 and 5-9 longer than 8-11 and 9-11 but about half the depth of stones 8 and 9 (stones are about 8" deep).  That allowance taken, the four sides of the diamond are pretty darn close to equal.  I suspect the Haversine calculation shows the typical error and prefer Google because Google likely uses the more accurate interative process of calculating spherical distance.  Using the later, the average of those 4 distance are 159.75 inches….say 160 inches per side was Mr. Gann's intent.

Let's settle of 3 values, then; the sides are 159.75 inches rounded to 160 inches, the horizontal red vector is 126 inches and the yellow vector is 300 inches.  What can we derive from this chimp work?

• Obviously and given the error in placement of the place marks on stones 8 and 9 we have conjoined and substantially equal equilateral triangles.  That was Mr. Gann's intent IMO,
• Consider the math of the vectors; (160/126)^2 = approximately Phi, and
• The yellow bisecting vector, indisputably, points to Lower Manhattan.

There are other insights the diamond provides, but on the third point, that yellow vector.  The vector formed by stones 5 and 11 give us a far more accurate bearing than saying "Mr. Gann's stone is square to Lower Manhattan."  Those stones are, out of recollection, maybe 40 feet apart.  It should be easy to get a reasonably accurate Cartesian bearing formed by the center point of those stones.  And that bearing will point to Lower Manhattan.  Possibly it will point, with reasonable accuracy, to One World Trade Center, or, perhaps, Federal Hall where on April 30, 1789 George Washington gave the first inaugural address to the nation, or, perhaps, the location of the NYSE…..  Or perhaps, the inaccuracy of the yellow vector may allow arguable inclusion of all of the above.

What is inescapable, in my opinion, is that the diamond proves the WD Gann Gravestone Geometry (GGG) exists and leads to further exploration using all of the 12 similarly oriented stones numerated in the first of the above inserts.  Instinct will allow one to "see" a simple cross in addition to the diamond.  One can "see" three large right triangles (a subject of a future post).  Using the 3 rows of stones ( rows of 7 stones, 3 stones and 2 stones), I can easily visualize 55 triangles within and including those 3 right triangles.   Anyone care to bet, that, once examination is complete, there aren't 82 triangles in total…..triangles within triangles?

And then there is one further extension of the triangles within triangles; time.  Every stone has dates on them.  Unfortunately, I did not take photos of the 12 stones, then not realizing research importance.  Each triangle has not only space dimensions, but time dimensions just as did WD Gann's Memorial Triangle (a preceding essay).  With, however, dozens (if not exactly 82) large, small and smaller triangles, perhaps concurrent time and space cycles can be derived.  Cycles within cycles. 

I have to make another trip with far more refined objectives…. and an instinctive open mindedness.  Developing.

Jim Ross