The "old" surveying methods were suprisingly good - if you had a solid observation platform, plenty of time, and an accurate clock.
In the 1960s, according to a book by Ben Rich (a former head of Lockheed Skunk Works) the Americans build pilotless ramjet drones which flew at something like 4000kt for a few thousand miles, to some place in China or Russia, to an accuracy of a few hundred yards, took pics, and flew pack to a spot where the film pack would be parachute dropped. They had problems retrieving the packs
but the drones were fine. This was all done using star navigation. Similarly ICBMs use star navigation when outside the atmosphere, and they achieve similar accuracy too.
And since accurate clocks have been around for some 100-200 years I would expect basic mapping to have been reasonably accurate during that time.
But to get within a few feet is something else. Even gravity effects from nearby terrain affect the result.
GPS is very accurate - much more accurate than ATC radar in most cases, although diplomatically the pilot is in NO position to argue with a radar unit.