# geography trick questions

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-trick-questions/223496>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 8, 2004, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-trick-questions/223496 "2004-01-08T20:18:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2004, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-trick-questions/223496/61 "2004-01-11T18:29:15Z")

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What is the county seat of Arlington County, Virginia?Even though its population is around 187.000 people, Arlington County has no incorporated areas – no cities, towns, villages, etc. – so it doesn’t have a county seat. The county court house is just located near the center of the county.

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**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2004, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geography-trick-questions/223496/62 "2004-01-11T20:39:22Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by snac \*  
> \*\*Polycarp–a bird flying south from extreme western Florida would briefly enter Alabama before jetting out over the Gulf of Mexico. (I know this because about four years back I had occasion to drive US 31 from Atmore to Mobile, both in Alabama. My atlas suggested that the road went very briefly into Florida, but I never saw a sign to that effect. Being somewhat compulsive, I emailed the Alabama DOT and got the straight dope on the subject–the road does NOT go through Florida, even a little. But the borderline in those parts is permanently fixed in my brain.)

The technical answer is “No” because there are **two** states that a bird starting in Florida and flying due south could enter. You got the hard one! The other answer is that there are parts of the St. John River, north of Jacksonville, that form the Georgia-Florida border in such a way that one can travel due south from Florida into Georgia (though not without either flying or getting wet).

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> Is there an “East Side” of Chicago? Explain. \*\*

Yes. It’s called “Lake Michigan” 🙂

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