We report trigonometric parallax measurements of 22 GHz H _ { 2 } O masers in two massive star-forming regions from VLBA observations as part of the BeSSeL Survey .
The distances of 11.11 ^ { +0.79 } _ { -0.69 } kpc to W49N ( G043.16 + 0.01 ) and 10.75 ^ { +0.61 } _ { -0.55 } kpc to G048.60 + 0.02 locate them in a distant section of the Perseus arm near the solar circle in the first Galactic quadrant .
This allows us to locate accurately the inner portion of the Perseus arm for the first time .
Combining the present results with sources measured in the outer portion of the arm in the second and third quadrants yields a global pitch angle of 9.5 ^ { \circ } \pm 1.3 ^ { \circ } for the Perseus arm .
We have found almost no H _ { 2 } O maser sources in the Perseus arm for 50 ^ { \circ } < \ell < 80 ^ { \circ } , suggesting that this \approx 6 kpc section of the arm has little massive star formation activity .