# Geographical Oddities **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 17, 2007, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391 "2007-06-17T22:22:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![WoodenTaco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/45deac/32.png) [@WoodenTaco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WoodenTaco)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/121 "2007-06-19T18:02:13Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] I’m not sure what the significance of this is supposed to be. On any given day, there will be a whole line of points where the Sun rises at the same point as at any given point. And what that line is for each point will vary through the year, so you can’t even absolutely state that three particular points are on the same line. [/QUOTE] The significance is that the sun rises at exactly the same time even though they are at different longitudes, which is a little cool, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/122 "2007-06-19T18:17:55Z")
[QUOTE=WoodenTaco] The significance is that the sun rises at exactly the same time even though they are at different longitudes, which is a little cool, at least. [/QUOTE] But at the solstices, when the full 23 1/2 degrees of the Earth’s tilt is away from the sun, wouldn’t the terminator span a considerable longitude? ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/123 "2007-06-19T18:18:15Z")
[QUOTE=Sam I Am] A slight tangent, but I’ve always found the term midwest to be misleading, seeing as how it’s largely in the eastern half of the country. Likewise Northwestern University is not where you’d expect it to be. [/QUOTE] The Northwest Territories (starting in what is now Ohio and extending west) were originally in the northwest of the US. The US simple got bigger most relevantly with the Louisiana purchase. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/124 "2007-06-19T18:39:37Z")
[QUOTE=OldGuy] The Northwest Territories (starting in what is now Ohio and extending west) were originally in the northwest of the US. The US simple got bigger most relevantly with the Louisiana purchase. [/QUOTE] Yeah, and Connecticut claimed the norther part of it, and a lot more. The original Connecticut grant was for a strip of a certain width from sea to sea. The colony was forced to surrender that part in Pennsylvania but claimed the rest and that part in Ohio was known as the [Western Reserve.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut_Western_Reserve) The federal government intervened and Connecticut ceded its claim west of Ohio in return for the government assuming the Connecticut Revolutionary war debt. Final adjudications of the whole things wasn’t made until 1805. ---
**Author:** ![WoodenTaco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/45deac/32.png) [@WoodenTaco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WoodenTaco)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/125 "2007-06-19T18:44:14Z")
[QUOTE=Lumpy] But at the solstices, when the full 23 1/2 degrees of the Earth’s tilt is away from the sun, wouldn’t the terminator span a considerable longitude? [/QUOTE] Yeah, I guess so, but it’s more or less a straight line, which is less cool. C’mon, I’m sure you guys get it. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/126 "2007-06-19T18:45:56Z")
Here’s one I noticed on Google Earth: a straight line (great circle) passing through the centre of Paris (Notre Dame cathedral) and the centre of Athens also passes straight through the centre of another capital city, Bern in Switzerland. There are other such triples that come within a few miles, but this one is virtually exact, according to Google Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/127 "2007-06-19T18:48:06Z")
[QUOTE=WoodenTaco] Yeah, I guess so, but it’s more or less a straight line, which is less cool. C’mon, I’m sure you guys get it. [/QUOTE] If it’s caused solely by the relative altitude of the three sites – surely, there are a few other mountains in the world, some of them higher than Mount Washington. That would mean that this kind of thing is so common as to be unremarkable. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/128 "2007-06-19T20:46:08Z")
Indiana traditionally calls itself the “cross roads of America.” Indianapolis is called the “cross roads of Indiana.” In fact, though, most Indiana roads are fairly cheerful. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/129 "2007-06-19T21:10:44Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] 68.3 sq mi (177.0 km²), of which land is 61.4 sq mi (159.0 km²). It used to be a square with 10 miles on each side (100 sq mi), but part of the original square was retroceded to Virginia, and now forms Arlington and part of Alexandria. [/QUOTE] HUGE! The City of San Francisco is only 7 square miles. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/130 "2007-06-19T21:15:45Z")
[QUOTE=Morbo] HUGE! The City of San Francisco is only 7 square miles. [/QUOTE] Wikipedi says that the City and County of San Francisco is 47 square miles. > **[San Francisco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco)** > > San Francisco,\[a\] officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the fourth-most populous city in California and the 17th-most populous in the United States, with a population of 826,079 in 2025. Among U.S. cities with a population of 200,000 or more, San Francisco is ranked first by per capita income, third by population density, and sixth by aggregate income as of 2024. Some 4.6 million residents live in the city's metropolitan statistical area, which is the 13th-largest in the Unit Prio... ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/131 "2007-06-19T21:54:55Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] Wikipedi says that the City and County of San Francisco is 47 square miles. > **[San Francisco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco)** > > San Francisco,\[a\] officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the fourth-most populous city in California and the 17th-most populous in the United States, with a population of 826,079 in 2025. Among U.S. cities with a population of 200,000 or more, San Francisco is ranked first by per capita income, third by population density, and sixth by aggregate income as of 2024. Some 4.6 million residents live in the city's metropolitan statistical area, which is the 13th-largest in the Unit Prio... [/QUOTE] That’s why I didn’t say county. ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/132 "2007-06-19T22:41:21Z")
[QUOTE=Pushkin] EDIT: To those who can’t beleive there are palm trees in Ireland, they are indeed all over Belfast in the cold 😛 north. But from another thread, I beleive they are a sort of “fake” palm. [/QUOTE] ahemmm they are not fake. They are new zealand cabbage trees that dont mind the cold. Probably our most successful export since kiwi fruit. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/133 "2007-06-19T22:48:37Z")
[QUOTE=scm1001] ahemmm they are not fake. They are new zealand cabbage trees that dont mind the cold. Probably our most successful export since kiwi fruit. [/QUOTE] Can you get cabbages from them? ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/134 "2007-06-19T23:06:16Z")
[QUOTE=Morbo] That’s why I didn’t say county. [/QUOTE] But the City of San Francisco and the County of San Francisco have the same geographic extent: they have the same boundaries, so they have the same area. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/135 "2007-06-20T00:07:03Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] But the City of San Francisco and the County of San Francisco have the same geographic extent: they have the same boundaries, so they have the same area. [/QUOTE] I see what I did now - I meant 7 x 7 miles square. How about: the entire city is 7.64 miles wide? ---
**Author:** ![Miscue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@Miscue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miscue)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/136 "2007-06-20T00:18:03Z")
[QUOTE=WoodenTaco] The Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Algeria, and Argentina are all larger than Greenland. India is almost 150% of Greenland’s size. [/QUOTE] As a young geography major I remember being blown away by the fact that Greenland’s size on maps was purely a result of projection. I felt so…lied to. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/137 "2007-06-20T02:43:34Z")
[QUOTE=diggleblop] Washington D.C. is only ten square miles. [/QUOTE] More correctly: The District of Columbia _was_ originally ten miles square. (The order is very important here.) “Ten square miles” means an area that’s equivalent to a rectangle 1 mile by 10 miles, or 2 miles by 5 miles, or 3 miles by 3 miles 1760 feet. (10 miles) \* (10 miles) = 100 miles[sup]2[/sup] ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/138 "2007-06-20T02:46:45Z")
[QUOTE=scm1001] They are New Zealand cabbage trees that don’t mind the cold. Probably our most successful export since kiwi fruit. [/QUOTE] You mean they stole them from China too? ---
**Author:** ![ArmenE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ArmenE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArmenE)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/139 "2007-06-20T03:00:29Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] I’m not sure what the significance of this is supposed to be. On any given day, there will be a whole line of points where the Sun rises at the same point as at any given point. And what that line is for each point will vary through the year, so you can’t even absolutely state that three particular points are on the same line. [/QUOTE] My guess is that wherever this factoid is from, it’s referring not just to points that happen to share a sunrise time, but rather, these points are the first to see the sunrise in the United States - Eastport being right on the US/Canada border on the Maine shore, Mt. Washington being the tallest point in the NE, and Mt. Cadillac the tallest point in America within 50 miles of the coast (if I remember correctly from my visit some years back). If their sunrise times really ever match up, I’d be interested in seeeing when that is. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391/140 "2007-06-20T06:40:05Z")
[QUOTE=ArmenE] Mt. Cadillac the tallest point in America within 50 miles of the coast (if I remember correctly from my visit some years back). [/QUOTE] You probably aren’t remembering correctly. Perhaps it’s the highest point within 50 miles of the east coast, but there are much higher mountains that close to the west coast. Mt Cadillac is only 1530 ft; the Olympic Mountains in Washington state (for example) have numerous peaks several times that elevation and are easily within 50 miles of the coast. As far as the simultaneous sunrise at three different points, this almost certainly only happens during a limited time period each year. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-oddities/408391.md?page=8)