Khila Kanda. Adhyaya 5, Brahmana 14. The Gayatri and its four feet
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Each mantra is given four ways: the Sanskrit in its Devanagari script, the same sounds in Roman letters, an English translation set in our own voice, and then the line once more in plain words, for a first and unhurried reading.
Not every passage is opened to the same depth. A few central mantras carry the full cross-school commentary, where the schools are set side by side. The rest are kept here whole and faithful, set in their place but not expounded, so the book stays entire and nothing is dropped for being thought minor.
Where the schools read a line differently, the difference is kept open. None is crowned and none is corrected. Each is met on its own terms, and where they contradict, the contradiction is left standing for you to sit with.
Her first foot, the three worlds
Earth, mid-air, heaven: these are eight syllables, and the first foot of the Gayatri has eight syllables. So this set of words is that very first foot of the Gayatri.
The names of the three worlds, earth, sky, and heaven, together count eight syllables, which is the first foot (line) of the Gayatri verse.