Until today I thought there was only only city in the United States that covers more than one county: New York, which comprises the counties of Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens, and Richmond. Each county is coterminous with a borough (The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island, respectively).
Today I learned that Kansas City, Missouri, slops over into parts of four counties (the counties of Cass, Clay, Jackson and Platte). Apparently, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is another example (it’s mainly in Oklahoma County with small parts in the counties of Canadian, Cleveland, and Pottawatomie). Are there any others?
Please note, I’m not talking about the independent cities found in some states that aren’t part of any county. Nor am I talking about suburbs or neighboring cities being in a different county from the central city. That’s not at all uncommon. I’m talking about the city limits of a single incorporated municipality (with a single mayor, city council, etc.) covering all or part of at least two different counties. I’ll take Louisiana parishes or Alaska boroughs in lieu of counties.
Aurora, Colorado (suburb of Denver) - Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas
Westminster, Colorado (suburb of Denver) - Adams and Jefferson
Austin, Texas - Travis and Williamson
Not all states have a rule that a city cannot cross a county border, so I think you’re going to get a lot of answers here. AFAIK, Texas doesn’t have such a rule, and there are plenty of cities in Texas which cross county borders. For example, the City of Dallas has land in 3 (or is it 4?) different counties.
The City of Jackson, MS originated in Hinds County. Eventually a piece of Rankin County was made a part of Jackson and an airport sited there. Several years ago they annexed a portion of Madison County, so for a while Jackson was in three counties. However, that annexation was overturned (may not be the right term, sorry) so that Jackson is no longer in Madison County.
The Dayton, Ohio suburbs of Centerville and Kettering each lie in both Montgomery and Greene counties. The Greene County portion of each is quite small, but they meet the criteria, nonetheless.
Also in Ohio, Columbus is mainly in Franklin County, but parts of it extend into Delaware and Fairfield counties. Dublin is a suburb of Columbus, and is also mainly in Franklin County, but parts of it extend into Delaware and Union counties. Other Columbus suburbs also spill into neighboring counties, so it’s fairly common in this state, anyway.
It doesn’t even have to be a big city. In Missouri, Pacific (pop. 6,600) straddles the St. Louis County-Franklin County line, and a chunk of Jefferson City, the state capitol, lies across the Missouri River in Callaway County.
In Missouri, at least, there’s no law that prevents an incorporated municipality from being in more than one county.
Richmond, Northville, Memphis, Flat Rock, and Grosse Pointe Shores are all smallish cities in Southeastern Michigan that cross county borders. It’s hardly a strange thing around here.
There’s tons of them. Some of Columbia, SC is in Lexington County. If you even know where Columbia is, either you learned your state capitals well or you were in the United States Army.
Columbia is dead center of the state, where a line connecting Charleston with Atlanta and a line connecting Raleigh with Savannah would cross each other.
I agree that there are bunches of them. Boston has an expensive residential neighborhood within the city proper, Brookline, that is not only in its own county (Norfolk) but also geographically separated from the rest of Norfolk county which only exists in scattered areas throughout the eastern part on the state on paper and those aren’t always joined together either. I also live in Norfolk county about 35 miles away. Counties don’t really mean much in Massachusetts.
Texarkana is a city that straddles the Texas and Arkansas state lines hence its name.
Bristol VA/TN does much the same thing as Texarkana. I believe they’re set up as two distinct cities on paper, one in each state, which then cooperate to produce the “effective” city government.
That’s true. There are a number of cities which apparently cross state borders (Kansas City is the largest; Texhoma OK/TX is probably the smallest, although Junction City AR/LA is also pretty small), but in all cases, they are really two cities with separate governments. They just happen to have the same name and share a common border. Sometimes one of the cities changed its name to that of the other at some point in the past. Kansas City KS did that, as well as one of the Bristols and one of the Bluefields (VA/WV).
There’s even some along international borders: Sault Ste Marie MI/ON, Niagara Falls NY/ON, and Nogales AZ/Sonoma.
The only case I know where a single city truly crosses a state/provincial border is Lloydminster AB/SK. Lloydminster is considered to be part of both provinces and the two provincial parliaments passed laws on the same day to make it so.