The first step in the construction of a perpendicular bisector is shown in the following diagram:
A line segment has 2 end points. The left end point is A, and the right is B. A geometric compass is shown with the compass needle on point A and the pencil of the compass placed about two thirds of the way along line segment A B.
This diagram illustrates the setup of a compass on one endpoint of the segment to draw arcs, which is the initial step in constructing the perpendicular bisector.