Geographical Oddities

[Wee_Bairn]

@Giles

In terms of driving distances, Google Maps gives Jellico TN to Windsor ON as 459 miles, and gives Memphis TN to Laurel Bloomery TN as 536 miles. So the shortest drive from Tennessee to Canada is shorter than the longest drive from one end of Tennessee to the other. I think that’s what Xema meant.

Now I get it- thanks.

[Captain_Socks]

@Diceman

Since nobody’s mentioned it yet, the “Eastern Shore” of Virginia sits on the end of the Delmarva Peninsula, cut off from the rest of Virginia. They have a tunnel that connects them to the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area, but aside from that, it’s a pretty long drive thru Maryland.

Yeah, my mom’s a teacher, and she and a co-worker were making a map of the United States, and the co-worker identified the Eastern Shore as part of Delaware. :eek: :eek: :smack: :rolleyes:

[Hypnagogic_Jerk]

Speaking of structures straddling borders, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House is located in Stanstead, Quebec and Derby Line, Vermont. It seems that the building is patrolled by border guards. A few years ago it needed renovations, and it was a challenge due to its being situated in two different jurisdictions.

[GorillaMan]

@Gangster Octopus

This may not be a geopgraphical oddity as much as a definitional one, but the City of London in England is only one square mile.

There’s a nice little law-enforcement lake-within-island situation which stems from this:

Liverpool Street Station is regularly patrolled by the British Transport Police, in a location surrounded by one patrolled by the City of London Police, in turn surrounded by the Metropolitan Police.

[Darryl_Lict]

@Spectre of Pithecanthropus

I have heard of a casino/restaurant somewhere on the CA/NV border; of course gambling is only allowed on the NV side.

I think that would be the CalNeva. And yeah, the casino is on the Nevada side. If it wasn’t in Reno county, you could probably also have hookers on one side.

[kanicbird]

The sun rises at 3 points in the US mainland simutainously, Mt Washington NH, Cadillac Mountain (Acadia National Park), ME, and some small town in ME, perhaps Eastport.

[OldGuy]

@David Simmons

And, come to think of it, that Kentucky nipple is doubless an artifact of that 1811 earthquake near New Madrid, MO that reportedly rang church bells in Boston. I know that it changed the course of the Mississippi and that’s probably what cut off that little piece of Kentucy.

I don’t believe so. I don’t have a cite, but I believe the state of Kentucy was simply created as being north of some surveyed line and east of the Mississippi. That little portion satified the criterion.

[JustinC]

On a bit of a tangent but still geographically odd, the Scottish 3rd division football team of Berwick Rangers, which has played in scottish leagues since 1905, have their ground in Berwick-upon-Tweed, England. There are 5 other scottish teams further south.

[user_hostile]

@ArmenE

MO, not MS

Aww, that’s what I get for trusting someone’s advice in the office…I’m going to remove the ball from his mouse

[Daffyd]

I’ve been told that Newfoundland is closer to England than it is to British Columbia.

Seems possible, since the time difference between Vancouver and St. John’s is 4 1/2 hours, and between St. John’s and London is 3 1/2 hours :eek:

[David_Simmons]

@OldGuy

I don’t believe so. I don’t have a cite, but I believe the state of Kentucy was simply created as being north of some surveyed line and east of the Mississippi. That little portion satified the criterion.

I think I stand a chance of winning this one. My cite is only Wike but here goes. The Kentucky Bend

The Kentucky Bend, variously called the New Madrid Bend, Madrid Bend, Bessie Bend or Bubbleland[1] is an exclave of Fulton County, Kentucky, in the United States. It is a piece of land on a hairpin turn of the Mississippi River and is completely surrounded by the states of Tennessee and Missouri. It is the extreme southwestern corner of Kentucky. As of the 2000 census the population was 17 persons in this area, officially known by the United States Census Bureau as Fulton County West Census County Division (CCD), a subdivision of Fulton County. The peninsula includes the lowest point in the state of Kentucky, at the banks of the Mississippi River. The only highway into the area is Tennessee State Route 22.

The Kentucky Bend covers a land area of 45.472 km² (17.557 sq mi), according to the Census Bureau.[2] The exclave was created due to the shift in course of the Mississippi after the New Madrid Earthquake in 1811 and 1812. Surveyors marking the boundary between Kentucky and Tennessee had estimated where their line would meet the Mississippi; later, more detailed surveys revealed the division of the loop.[3] The western border of Kentucky is designated as the Mississippi River, as is the eastern border of Missouri — thus the creation of a “notch” for Kentucky, but not for Tennessee.

There is also acritique of the Wiki article. In the geography section the writer criticized the article for spending so much verbiage on the Bend since it is such a small piece of the entire state geography. However there is no criticism on the grounds of inaccuracty.

[AWB]

@GorillaMan

I’ve heard that the American state closest to Africa is Maine, which I don’t have an easy way of checking - anyone got a globe?!

I’ve got Google Earth. Measuring from Western Sahara - the African country that appears closest to North America, I get the following measurements:
West Quoddy Head, Maine: 3150 miles
Cape Cod, Massachusetts: 3292 miles
Ocean City, Maryland: 3569 miles
Cape Fear, North Carolina: 3624 miles
Miami, Florida: 4000 miles

So it indeed looks like Maine’s the winner! Good bar trivia!

[AWB]

@Giles

In terms of driving distances, Google Maps gives Jellico TN to Windsor ON as 459 miles, and gives Memphis TN to Laurel Bloomery TN as 536 miles. So the shortest drive from Tennessee to Canada is shorter than the longest drive from one end of Tennessee to the other. I think that’s what Xema meant.

Google Earth measures the NE/SW distance of Tennessee at 493 miles.

From the southernmost territory of Canada (Middle Island, in the middle of Lake Erie) to the northern border of Tennessee is only 350 miles. To the southernmost mainland point of Canada (Point Pelee National Park) is just another 17 miles (367 miles total).

[AWB]

@Polycarp

It was the Grand Old Duke of York who defined the Twelve-Mile Circle (twelve miles from old New Castle Courthouse, whose cupola is the center point). Note that this also establishes the land boundary between Delaware and New Jersey.

Actually, the arc is the border between Delaware and Pennsylvania. Between Delaware and New Jersey is the Delaware River - the one Washington crossed to surprise the @!#?@! out of the British troops in New Jersey.

[Sunspace]

@David Simmons

I think I stand a chance of winning this one. My cite is only Wike but here goes. The Kentucky Bend

Heh. From its shape in the maplet in that Wikipedia article, they should be calling it the Kentucky Polyp.

[David_Simmons]

@AWB

Actually, the arc is the border between Delaware and Pennsylvania. Between Delaware and New Jersey is the Delaware River - the one Washington crossed to surprise the @!#?@! out of the British troops in New Jersey.

I think they were Hessians.

[borschevsky]

The largest island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island is Vulcan Point in Crater Lake on Vulcano Island in Lake Taal on Luzon.

[Askance]

@OldGuy

There are parts of the netherlands inside parts of Belgium inside the Netherlands
Baarle Nassau and Baarle Hertog

That must have been awkward in World War One …! I guess it remained part of free Belgium?

My oddity (perhaps more climatic than geographic): the driest continent (ie that has the least precipitation) is Antarctica. Australia is the second-driest continent but gets an area of snow bigger than Switzerland each winter. There is no permanent snow however. Sydney, the biggest city, gets more rain than London or Berlin, but throws it all into the ocean and pipes in water from drier areas of Australia to drink.

[AWB]

@borschevsky

The largest island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island is Vulcan Point in Crater Lake on Vulcano Island in Lake Taal on Luzon.

That is too cool! (It took me several tries reading your message to get it. It was easier to look at the satellite picture.)

[Lumpy]

@Spectre of Pithecanthropus

Mostly because most people who live outside of Illinois usually think of Chicago whenever they think of that state, and Chicago seems a mllion miles away from the idea that people have of the South (again, I’m sure this is mainly true people who do not live there). So it’s surprising to realize that the other end of Illinois is practically in the South, and borders Kentucky.

I’ve driven from the midwest to the southeast (Georgia/Florida) a couple of times and as the shortest route is usually through the Paduca- Nashville area we always ending up driving most of the length of Illinois, and it takes just about 4-ever.