[QUOTE=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.
[/QUOTE]
If you look at the picture here, it appears that the arc forms part of the land borders between Delaware and Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, and Delaware and Maryland (look at the parts in red).
Washington D.C. is only ten square miles.
[QUOTE=diggleblop]
Washington D.C. is only ten square miles.
[/QUOTE]
No, it’s ten miles square - or rather, it was originally. Because some of it was returned to Virginia instead of being 100 square miles it’s only 68.3 square miles.
[QUOTE=diggleblop]
Washington D.C. is only ten square miles.
[/QUOTE]
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=David Simmons]
If you go straight south from Detroit, MI you wind up in the Pacific Ocean.
[/QUOTE]
Although, as already noted, you have to go through Canada to get there. 
In fact, the westernmost point of land in South America, (a bit Southwest of Talara, Ecuador, is farther East than Cleveland, Atlanta, or (most of) Jacksonville.
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=severus]
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.
[/QUOTE]
Not that I doubt you, but this is the first I’ve heard of border guards between the USA and Canada. Isn’t it supposed to be the longest undefended border in the world?
[QUOTE=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.
[/QUOTE]
Not to mention Gretna FC, which is based in Scotland but used to play in the English Unibond League. They transferred to the Scottish Third Division, and at the End of last season achieved promotion to the Scottish Premier League after only 5 years.
[QUOTE=Alive At Both Ends]
Not that I doubt you, but this is the first I’ve heard of border guards between the USA and Canada. Isn’t it supposed to be the longest undefended border in the world?
[/QUOTE]
Undefended by the military. There are still border guards at the crossings.
David Simmons, I grew up about forty miles from Kentucky Bend and heard references to the area, but no details. This is the first time that I have know about the part of Kentucky located in Missouri accessible through Tennessee. What a hoot! I’ve been to Reel Foot Lake, Tiptonville, and that section of the Mississippi – just never paid any attention to “the Bend.”
Now I want to go out of idle curiousity.
And thanks for bringing it to our attention, user_hostile.
The city of Lloydminster is in both Alberta and Saskatchewan. Now you might ask what so unusual about that? After all, Kansas City is in both Kansas and Missouri, Texarkana is in both Texas and Arkansas, Bristol is on the TN-VA border, Bluefield straddles the VA-WV line, and a number of much smaller places dot various state borders here and there around the country.
What makes Lloydminster different is that all those others are actually two separate municipalities with their own mayors and councils (if they’re incorporated – not all of them are). Lloydminster is a single municipality which both provinces consider to be entirely within their respective borders. Back in 1930 or thereabouts, the parliaments of the two provinces passed simultaneous laws setting up this condominium (as this situaton is called).
So residents of Lloydminster can attend public universities in either province and pay in-province tuition, for example. Not sure how legal issues having to do with an action being legal in one province and illegal in the other are handled. But as I understand it, criminal law in Canada is a federal function, so this problem would only apply to civil issues.
[QUOTE=David Simmons]
I think I stand a chance of winning this one. My cite is only Wike but here goes. The Kentucky Bend
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.
[/QUOTE]
The Wiki article makes it sound as if the river course had already changed when the accurate survey was done, and they discovered the oddity. I know Kentucky joined the Union before 1811, but maybe they had only fixed rough “lines on a map” borders before that?
[QUOTE=Gadarene]
Lazlo:
Nice. 
It didn’t look like a one-horse town, but try finding a decent hair jelly.
[/QUOTE]
What can I say? I’m a Dapper Dan man.
I’m glad someone caught the reference.
Shoot. I wish I could figure out how to link to a Google Earth page, but anyhow…
Here around the Twin Cities, MN, it is tough to make the claim that something is “the biggest thing East (OR West) of the Mississippi.” I usually have to check a map and say “Well, we are West of the Mississippi twice, and East of it once…” It gets all twisty up here!
[QUOTE=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.
[/QUOTE]
The arc of the Twelve-Mile Circle is most of the Delaware-Pennsylvania border (a small portion extends west along the top of “The Wedge” to join the Circle to the Mason-Dixon Line separating Maryland from Delaware and Pennsylvania). But in addition:
(a) It also includes a very small shaving of what would otherwise be Maryland, where the curve of the circle extends marginally west of the north-south Mason-Dixon Line;
(b) Within 12 miles of old New Castle Courthouse the entirety of the Delaware River is within the state, which is not merely a trivia fact but important to shipping and riparian development – for example, if you own a riverside home in New Jersey, you need to get permission to build a dock from Delaware;
(c) The tip of one peninsula on the Jersey Shore of the Delaware River extends north across the 12-Mile Circle and hence is within the State of Delaware, even though east of the river. This last is what my “land boundary between Delaware and New Jersey” referenced.
[QUOTE=Colophon]
The Wiki article makes it sound as if the river course had already changed when the accurate survey was done, and they discovered the oddity. I know Kentucky joined the Union before 1811, but maybe they had only fixed rough “lines on a map” borders before that?
[/QUOTE]
I suppose the Kentucky-Tennesee border was established as along some line of latitude before the area had been completely explored. It must have been known before the earthquake that the Kentucky border ended on the bank of the Mississippi in the vicinity of some landmarks that survived the earthquake. When they got around to an accurate survey it turned out that that little piece was cut off but Kentucky wasn’t about to cede it. “Dammit, our line ends on the Mississippi near Pilot Rock and that’s where it’s a goin’ to stay.” Just a WAG
[QUOTE=panache45]
Since when is this thread about “refuting” anything?
( :rolleyes: )
[/QUOTE]
I was replying to someone who asserted exactly that something SHOULD refute something to be here. I was asserting it didn’t need to. Duh.
[QUOTE=acsenray]
Maybe “refute” wasn’t the correct word, but when you call a geographic factoid “odd,” you’re implying that it contravenes something – something like a widely held belief that forms the basis of some kind of common assumption or a seeming violation of common sense or something. How is it in any sense of the word “odd” that the distance between Chicago and Cairo is greater than the distance between Cairo and Memphis, any more than Kansas City, Mo., is closer to Kansas City, Kan., than it is to St. Louis, Mo.?
Millions of people live near the borders of states. Surely, most or all of them are aware of such simple spatial realities in their own daily lives. Why would they find it “odd” in the case of Chicago?
[/QUOTE]
Spectre of Pithecanthropus explains above exactly why this was offered as “odd.” And I would tend to agree that most people outside of Southern Illinois wouldn’t think easily of the tip of Illinois as being in the backyard of the South. Whether that makes is “odd” or not is, of course, up to every person’s individual opinion. 
[QUOTE=Lazlo]
What can I say? I’m a Dapper Dan man.
I’m glad someone caught the reference.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t want Fop!
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=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.
[/QUOTE]
Not anything to float your boat I admit, but these points are not in line with each other it’s the elevation difference that makes it possible with Mt Washington about 200 miles west of Eastport ME.