Nice poem ! – material in this general vein is, one feels, appropriate for MPSIMS if anywhere…
Very interesting blog item – thanks. Those must have been the days ! – such experiences must have been maddening for people just wishing to travel from A to B, but fascinating.
Ah, yes, the Fintona horse tram ! A terribly sad day at the end of September 1957, when that one was abandoned, plus its neighbouring larger brethren: the delightful Sligo, Leitrim & Northern Counties Railway, independent to the last; and the Bundoran branch; and the four routes radiating from Clones – though the parts of these last within the Republic, continued in use for freight only under CIE (Irish Republic Transport) for a couple more years.
I read about all this stuff as a kid, and found it enchanting: no chance to see it first-hand before it all perished – we were English resident in England, and sadly, my parents had no reason or wish to visit Ireland.
It’s arguable that that’s the easternmost point in the US and in fact, I’ll argue against it. It’s only easternmost if you measure from Greenwich, England, but it seems that Greenwich is not within the US. If you measure from somewhere within the US (a much more logical thing to do), then the easternmost point is in Maine.
France has ocean borders with the UK and Canada, but people usually only consider land borders for such trivia. The Chunnel is, I expect, treated like a bridge and does not add a land border.
Here’s another such question: how many countries does Spain border? Not counting Gibralter, that is.
Speaking of ocean borders, because Fisher’s Island (owned by NY) is so close to RI, there is an ocean border between those two states. In fact, there’s a tripoint in the ocean where NY, RI and CT meet.
Also, Illinois and Michigan have a lake border. Unlike the ocean, where state waters only go out 3 miles, a state’s ownership of lakes goes all the way to the middle or wherever the agreed upon boundary is.
Point Udall on St. Croix, USVI also makes a good case for the easternmost point in the U.S. I have been to that piece of rocky terrain right on the Caribbean many times because it is so pretty, desolate and has that distinction. St. Croix is part of the US Virgin Islands territory but it is still definitely part of the U.S. and this fact doesn’t depend on any arbitrary designation of east versus west.
“Point Udall (17°45′20″N 64°33′55″WCoordinates: 17°45′20″N 64°33′55″W) at the east end of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands is the easternmost point (by travel, not longitude) in the United States including territories and insular areas.”
If any US territory works, there are several answers that beat Haiti. The DR is closer to PR than Haiti is to Guantanamo, I believe. The British Virgin Islsnds are closer still to the USVI.
No it isn’t. It’s still owned by Cuba, but leased by the US. (The current Cuabn government doesn’t agree with this lease, but is unable to change it.)
As far as my question goes, I expected the answer of Jamaica. The Cayman Is. are a British overseas territory and I was only considering sovereign nations.
For anyone not getting it, they’re the closest countries to the US, meaning the 50 states (including any islands that are parts of those states) but not US possessions such as Puerto Rico. It would have been the wrong list for the US plus possessions, since Dominican Republic is closer to PR than Cuba is to Florida.
I’m not sure what the next few on the list are. I think it’s Belize[sup]1[/sup] and then France (St Pierre & Miquelon) followed by Haiti, although I may have those mixed up.
[sup]1[/sup] Measure from the Dry Tortugas, which are part of Florida.
But: If your question had been which are the closest countries or territories to the US, I believe Cayman would be the correct answer. Or is there a territory closer? I don’t think so.
So if I’m correct about that, your question had a bit of an element of “guess what I’m thinking”, if you insist that Jamaica is the only correct answer.
Still, an excellent question and a fun exercise! Thanks!!
I’m not saying it’s the only correct answer, just the one I expected. My thinking is that since I only considered distances from the US proper (i.e. not counting possessions) it would be reasonable to not consider possessions of other countries as valid answers. That’s kind of a subtle point though, so it’s understandable if everyone missed it.
Despite the “Aw, shucks” nature of this post, I wanted to thank the folks who read my question back on page 2 (High points of states being so close to state borders), took it seriously–without an iota of snark, cleaned it up for me, gave me a damn fine answer or two, plus a nifty anecdote/factoid. You folks are the best!
Apropos of nothing, here’s an OLD column from the Master that might be squozen in here; not exactly You can’t get there from here, more like Why would you bother?
Technically, it could also be accessed by boat or hovercraft, which places it in the same category as Minnesota’s Northwest Angle, the one bit of territory that is furthest north in the lower 48.
