Longest street in the world?

[nonpolar]

Question to all canadians more specifficcaly to ontarians.
How come people in toronto/hamilton call this area Golden Horseshoe?
For me it is opposite of Golden,it looks more like Rusted Horseshoe.There are bunch of steel mills ,coal powered stations,polluted lakes,ponds and huge highways.In the summer smog is ever present in this area.
One more thing I found funny,there is this Yonge street running thru the center of Toronto and pepole call it the longest street in the world?!Of course major tourist attraction. :o Who came up with this nonsense-any street can be called longest .

[NurseCarmen]

I woulda thought the Russians (http://www.onthegotours.com/Siberianhighway_Itinerary) had the claim on longest street in the world.

[ZebraShaSha]

Do they have to actually be around today or ever an actual road? I would nominate the Silk Road of China, if both were not held in account.

[David Simmons]

Sepulveda Blvd. in the Los Angeles Basin might be a pigmy among the world's long streets but it can be a target. It runs from San Fernando Road in San Fernando to Lakewood Blvd in Signal Hill. A distance of just over 56 mi.

[UncleBill]

This site (http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/toronto_history/history_yongest.htm) says it is almost 1900km long. Perhaps because the name is "street" and not "road" or "highway" (like the Siberian Highway), it carries that nickname. Also, folks are well known to embellish little details when naming things like this.

[Sunspace]

They promote Yonge Street as being 1900 kilometres long and going all the way to Rainy River, but they're really talking about provincial Highway 11 when they say that.

Yonge Street itself goes in a straight line from Queens Quay on the shore of Lake Ontario to Holland Landing. The street numbering is continuous through all the communities along this lengh, starting at 1 (the Toronto Star building on the northeast conrner of Yonge and Queens Quay) and going to addresses like 17000 Yonge Street in Newmarket.

Highway 11 may continue north of Newmarket, but it is not necessarily named Yonge Street, not does the street numbering continue sequentially. (Part of Highway 11 appears to be named Yonge Street in Barrie, but, in Barrie, Highway 11 also travels (http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?ovi=1&zoom=6&mapdata=lkA%2fomiQSEYz5ipmtktbtdVd4W%2fZQJwSX0%2byXteHIDA3PevePAQ4brl4zk16nZ5ED4CkDooyCAiRarefNqsbVw 04S1p3%2b1UwrMA%2bi30GoC3m7k%2bD1OACdSouNrosa5cH%2b7y8iFarHjoT3U0EMauEA1meacpaCpzi7WjC0XSkpkj4GQ1fBT %2f0GZPrdtJJ9Owm%2bn17gljf%2bati5w8mq18niDYbz%2bKAj%2fUM47dkhXwdoQIYHV4XWqB4yTd%2b0ANA8Wp3XQ0DStdaQX q4qEQn%2f%2bXLo3aWMubjkjre3fCN2%2f0ke096a%2b1vyB8dJn3Z2kWWtC6IPSixgNpgFZk%3d) across Burton Avenue, Essa Road, Bradford Street, Dunlop Street, and Blake Street.)

[Sunspace]

Oh, and the Golden Horseshoe name? Typical 1950's-style "civic boosterism".

This is the same kind of thing that named the old Miracle Mile, the long-eclipsed plaza at Eglinton and O'Connor Drive. (The Miracle Mile was officially opend by the Queen in around 1954!)

Somehow the Golden Horseshoe name stuck around, although I don't hear it as much as I used to. "GTA" for Greater Toronto Area seems to be much more common these days, even if it doesn't mean the same thing. (The GTA stops at Burlington, and doesn't include Hamilton, for instance, while the Golden Gorseshoe goes all the way around the end of the lake to, presumably, St. Catharines.

[Lute Skywatcher]

Highway 11 may continue north of Newmarket, but it is not necessarily named Yonge Street, not does the street numbering continue sequentially. (Part of Highway 11 appears to be named Yonge Street in Barrie, but, in Barrie, Highway 11 also travels across Burton Avenue, Essa Road, Bradford Street, Dunlop Street, and Blake Street.)Not to mention that it's a divided highway in three places: in Thunder Bay, between North Bay & Callander, and again from just north of Huntsville to just outside Barrie.

[Mr. Blue Sky]

Longest street in the world?

Lonely Street, my friend.

[dnooman]

I thought all the roads were connected, hence they're all the longest road. :cool:


<steps away from the bong, head hung in shame>

[Daizy]

Varying answers (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=190833) from when this was asked last year. :)

[lynxie]

from wickipedia -

Yonge Street (pronounced "young"), which has been listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world, is more than 200 years old and nearly 2,000 km long.

As "Highway 11", Yonge Street officially stretched 1,896 km (1,178 miles ). It starts at the edge (literally) of Lake Ontario in Toronto, in southern Ontario, Canada. From there, it runs north to Cochrane (about as far north as the roads run), gradually turns to the west as it goes around Lake Superior to Thunder Bay, and then to the town of Rainy River, bordering the state of Minnesota, United States. Officially, changes in provincial responsibility separated the now locally funded and controlled Yonge Street from Highway 11 during the 1990s, and Provincial Highway 11 does not start until after the town of Barrie, Ontario. This led to disputes over the "longest street in the world" claim of the approximately 56 km street.

Yonge Street is said to have started as a trail created by Huron Indians. The trail was used by numerous European explorers, such as Samuel de Champlain in 1615, and later became a military route. It was named Yonge Street in 1793, after Sir George Yonge, the British Secretary of War at the time, by John Graves Simcoe, the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada (now Ontario). Simcoe also chose the site around the road as the Town of York (now Toronto), and had it paved to allow easier use by the military as a north-south route.

[World Eater]

Imagine the address at the end of that street.

"My address? Sure, it's 982342353434593845034953 Yonge St.........."

[Cisco]

They promote Yonge Street as being 1900 kilometres long and going all the way to Rainy River, but they're really talking about provincial Highway 11 when they say that.

Yonge Street itself goes in a straight line from Queens Quay on the shore of Lake Ontario to Holland Landing. The street numbering is continuous through all the communities along this lengh, starting at 1 (the Toronto Star building on the northeast conrner of Yonge and Queens Quay) and going to addresses like 17000 Yonge Street in Newmarket.

Highway 11 may continue north of Newmarket, but it is not necessarily named Yonge Street, not does the street numbering continue sequentially. (Part of Highway 11 appears to be named Yonge Street in Barrie, but, in Barrie, Highway 11 also travels (http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?ovi=1&zoom=6&mapdata=lkA%2fomiQSEYz5ipmtktbtdVd4W%2fZQJwSX0%2byXteHIDA3PevePAQ4brl4zk16nZ5ED4CkDooyCAiRarefNqsbVw 04S1p3%2b1UwrMA%2bi30GoC3m7k%2bD1OACdSouNrosa5cH%2b7y8iFarHjoT3U0EMauEA1meacpaCpzi7WjC0XSkpkj4GQ1fBT %2f0GZPrdtJJ9Owm%2bn17gljf%2bati5w8mq18niDYbz%2bKAj%2fUM47dkhXwdoQIYHV4XWqB4yTd%2b0ANA8Wp3XQ0DStdaQX q4qEQn%2f%2bXLo3aWMubjkjre3fCN2%2f0ke096a%2b1vyB8dJn3Z2kWWtC6IPSixgNpgFZk%3d) across Burton Avenue, Essa Road, Bradford Street, Dunlop Street, and Blake Street.)


If we get to play by those rules then Independence Blvd. in Charlotte, NC is several hundred miles long as well.


Wasn't there at one point a road that went from Alaska to South America?

[Colophon]

from wickipedia -

Yonge Street (pronounced "young"), which has been listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world, is more than 200 years old...
200 years? Never! Get away! That old! Wow!

Er, every time I go to visit my girlfriend I'm driving down a street ten times as old as that. :D

[lynxie]

200 years? Never! Get away! That old! Wow!

Er, every time I go to visit my girlfriend I'm driving down a street ten times as old as that. :D

(giggle) old is relative, isn't it?

[Marconi & Schmeese]

Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in California is pretty long.

[photopat]

Western Avenue in Chicago isn't as long as any of those, but it is 26 miles and is pretty straight.

[Sternvogel]

Wasn't there at one point a road that went from Alaska to South America?

The Pan-American Highway is continuous for over 16,000 miles -- with the exception (at least as of 1997) of a 54-mile stretch of the Darien Gap, the region surrounding the border between Panama and Colombia. As this article (http://www.cnn.com/EARTH/9711/25/panama.darien.gap/) explains, reasons for the lack of completion range from ecological concerns to Panamanian fears of drug-related violence spilling over from their country's southern neighbor (from which Panama declared independence in 1903, thus removing Colombia from the select list of bi-continental countries).

[wolf_meister]

If we are to consider a thoroughfare as a street, shouldn't this rule out roads that go across provinces, states, other countries?

World Eater raises an interesting point. Shouldn't a street be numbered beginning to end? The Guiness Book of World Records used to publish the highest street address number which is why I am quoting from their 1974 edition:

The highest numbered house in the world is number 81,590 on M-19 in the village of Memphis near Richmond, Michigan.

Even this seems a bit suspicious. Would this person list their address as
81,590 M-19 Street
Memphis, Michigan ?

M-19 sure sounds like a highway doesn't it?

Any "Wolverine Staters" familiar with any of this?

********************************************************
Sternvogel
Interesting article about the missing "link" in the Pan-American Highway. I thought there was yet another reason for the gap. Going from South to North, somewhere along the highway, automobile tires are washed to prevent the spread of cattle diseases into North America. Well, maybe this is done elsewhere and not in the Darien Gap.

[Lobsang]

Short Street - Ankh-Morpork.

[Sunspace]

The highest numbered house in the world is number 81,590 on M-19 in the village of Memphis near Richmond, Michigan.

Even this seems a bit suspicious. Would this person list their address as
81,590 M-19 Street
Memphis, Michigan ? Why not? I have friends whose address is of the form "72222 Highway 76, Small Town, Ontario".

The number is the 911 locator address number, or whatever it's called, and I don't think it's continuous along the highway, but is rather township or topographically related. I've seen plenty of six-digit 911-locator addresses. Presumably those would be used as part of the address as well?

[Cisco]

Short Street - Ankh-Morpork.


I read The Thief of Time awhile back and I've been trying to keep an eye out for you making Pratchett references ever since :). Great book and namesake by the way.

[Lobsang]

Thanks. Though it was a good book, my choice of namesake was premature. As I read more books I found a new favourite - Sam Vimes.

[Muffin]

Yonge St. does not run from Toronto to Rainy River. Highway 11 does.

In the northeast, huge sections of the road now known as Hiighway 11 did not exist, even as game trails, until the 20s through the 40s, when it first connected many northeastern towns. In the northwest, the final Rainy River section was completed in 1965.

Highway 11 is not the longest road in Ontario. Highway 17 is.

In public school in southern Ontario, I was taught that Yonge St. was the longest street in the world, reaching from Toronto to the western border of Ontario. Could have been worse. At least I was not taught creationism.

[Little Nemo]

thus removing Colombia from the select list of bi-continental countries
Of course nowadays Columbia's pretending it never had a serious relationship with Panama and was just "experimenting".

[David Simmons]

[QUOTE=wolf_meister]If we are to consider a thoroughfare as a street, shouldn't this rule out roads that go across provinces, states, other countries?

World Eater raises an interesting point. Shouldn't a street be numbered beginning to end? The Guiness Book of World Records used to publish the highest street address number which is why I am quoting from their 1974 edition:

The highest numbered house in the world is number 81,590 on M-19 in the village of Memphis near Richmond, Michigan.

Even this seems a bit suspicious. Would this person list their address as
81,590 M-19 Street
Memphis, Michigan ?

M-19 sure sounds like a highway doesn't it?

Any "Wolverine Staters" familiar with any of this?

QUOTE]

Rural dwellings these days have addresses in many localities. This is done so that fire and other emergency crews can get to them quickly without running up and down the back roads looking for "Joe Miller's farm." The addresses are plotted on a map at the fire, sheriff and other places.

[Diceman]

[Even this seems a bit suspicious. Would this person list their address as
81,590 M-19 Street
Memphis, Michigan ?

M-19 sure sounds like a highway doesn't it?

Any "Wolverine Staters" familiar with any of this?
M-19 is a state road. Some of them are highways, but others are just normal roads. Offhand, M-39 (the Southfield Freeway) and M-14 are highways, while M-1 (Woodward Avenue) and M-5 (Grand River Avenue) are normal streets.

I'm not familiar with Memphis, MI, but if it's out in the boonies somewhere, then M-19 is probably a normal street. Most people would write their addresses as 12345 M-19, Memphis, MI.

[Diceman]

I forgot to add that M-19 might have a "normal" name, in which case everybody except the Dept. of Transportation would use that name. Nobody refers to Woodward Avenue as M-1 in casual conversation.

[ZebraShaSha]

The Silk Road of China is 7,000 kilometers (4,349.59835 miles) long.

[racinchikki]

I forgot to add that M-19 might have a "normal" name, in which case everybody except the Dept. of Transportation would use that name. Nobody refers to Woodward Avenue as M-1 in casual conversation.
Whereas the opposite seems to hold true here, where US Highway 80 runs through the old downtown areas of city after city after city. While technically 80 is known as Marshall Avenue while you're in Longview, and is designated such on street signs and written addresses, it is rarer to hear a person say that a place is on "west Marshall" than "on 80 just past the intersection with Pine Tree Road." This is probably because nobody's quite sure where Marshall Avenue becomes Gladewater Highway and so on.

[Lute Skywatcher]

This site (http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/toronto_history/history_yongest.htm) says it is almost 1900km long. Perhaps because the name is "street" and not "road" or "highway" (like the Siberian Highway), it carries that nickname. Also, folks are well known to embellish little details when naming things like this.In some cases, "Highway" is a misnomer. When construction for the Lincoln Highway (http://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/info/) was begun in 1913, it was a simple little two-lane road. The orignal route from New York to San Francisco is about 3400 miles (5483 km) long.

How about Old Route 66 (http://www.historic66.com/facts/)? 2448 miles (3948 km) long. Even if Guinness was going by the length of the trail that Yonge Street was built on, it still loses out.

[Muffin]

In some cases, "Highway" is a misnomer.
Hershey, for example.

When construction for the Lincoln Highway (http://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/info/) was begun in 1913, it was a simple little two-lane road. The orignal route from New York to San Francisco is about 3400 miles (5483 km) long.

That's how Highway 11/Yonge St. came to be. It started as a road in Toronto that made it's way a few villages north of Toronto a couple of hundred years ago.

Elsewhere in the province, communities began to build roads to each other, more or less in hubs. For example, there were roads connecting towns in the Temiskaming area, the Thunder Bay area, and in the Rainy River area, but there were no roads connecting these hubs to the rest of Ontario. Eventually North Bay was connected to the Temiskaming area (by the Ferguson Highway), then Nipigon connected to Geraldon on one side and Thunder Bay on the other, then Temiskaming was connected to Geraldton, and finally Thunder Bay was connected to Rainy River in 1965.

One of the more interesting roads is the Dawson Trail heading west out of Thunder Bay, which still exists in many places. It was not an uninterrupted road, but rather was a combination of roads and water ferries.

There are still many communities in Northern Ontario that cannot be reached by road. Over a couple of dozen can be reached by road only in the winter, when trucks drive over frozen lakes. http://www.mndm.gov.on.ca/mndm/nordev/PDFs/winterroads0304eng.pdf

Even the combined 11/17 is tenuous, for if there are problems at the bridge in Nipigon, there is no road connecting one half of the country to the other -- not even a logging trail.

[Boyo Jim]

Imagine the address at the end of that street.

"My address? Sure, it's 982342353434593845034953 Yonge St.........."

Nah... there's an east/west zero point in the middle.. The biggest numbers are 49117117671729692251746 West Yonge St. and 491171176717296922517476 East Yonge St.

[Sunspace]

Er, there is no zero point in the middle. Yonge Street starts at the shore of Lake Ontario, with the building numbered One Yonge Street, as I mentioned above. If Yonge Street really was continuously-named and numbered from Toronto to Rainy River, the highest address would be in Rainy River.

[Muffin]

Besides that, in Rainy River it is called Atwood Ave., not Yonge St.