# Longest street in the world? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 12, 2004, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790 "2004-07-12T22:36:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nonpolar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3da27b/32.png) [@nonpolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonpolar)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/1 "2004-07-12T22:36:34Z")
Question to all canadians more specifficcaly to ontarians. How come people in toronto/hamilton call this area Golden Horseshoe? For me it is opposite of Golden,it looks more like Rusted Horseshoe.There are bunch of steel mills ,coal powered stations,polluted lakes,ponds and huge highways.In the summer smog is ever present in this area. One more thing I found funny,there is this Yonge street running thru the center of Toronto and pepole call it the longest street in the world?!Of course major tourist attraction. :o Who came up with this nonsense-any street can be called longest . ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/2 "2004-07-12T23:55:50Z")
I woulda thought the [Russians](http://www.onthegotours.com/Siberianhighway_Itinerary) had the claim on longest street in the world. ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/3 "2004-07-12T23:57:46Z")
Do they have to actually be around today or ever an actual road? I would nominate the Silk Road of China, if both were not held in account. ---
**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:** [July 13, 2004, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/4 "2004-07-13T02:10:47Z")
Sepulveda Blvd. in the Los Angeles Basin might be a pigmy among the world’s long streets but it can be a target. It runs from San Fernando Road in San Fernando to Lakewood Blvd in Signal Hill. A distance of just over 56 mi. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/5 "2004-07-13T02:16:58Z")
[This site](http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/toronto_history/history_yongest.htm) says it is almost 1900km long. Perhaps because the name is “street” and not “road” or “highway” (like the Siberian Highway), it carries that nickname. Also, folks are well known to embellish little details when naming things like this. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/6 "2004-07-13T02:39:37Z")
They promote Yonge Street as being 1900 kilometres long and going all the way to Rainy River, but they’re really talking about provincial Highway 11 when they say that. Yonge Street itself goes in a straight line from Queens Quay on the shore of Lake Ontario to Holland Landing. The street numbering is continuous through all the communities along this lengh, starting at 1 (the Toronto Star building on the northeast conrner of Yonge and Queens Quay) and going to addresses like 17000 Yonge Street in Newmarket. Highway 11 may continue north of Newmarket, but it is not necessarily named Yonge Street, not does the street numbering continue sequentially. (Part of Highway 11 appears to be named Yonge Street in Barrie, but, in Barrie, Highway 11 also [travels](http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?ovi=1&zoom=6&mapdata=lkA%2fomiQSEYz5ipmtktbtdVd4W%2fZQJwSX0%2byXteHIDA3PevePAQ4brl4zk16nZ5ED4CkDooyCAiRarefNqsbVw04S1p3%2b1UwrMA%2bi30GoC3m7k%2bD1OACdSouNrosa5cH%2b7y8iFarHjoT3U0EMauEA1meacpaCpzi7WjC0XSkpkj4GQ1fBT%2f0GZPrdtJJ9Owm%2bn17gljf%2bati5w8mq18niDYbz%2bKAj%2fUM47dkhXwdoQIYHV4XWqB4yTd%2b0ANA8Wp3XQ0DStdaQXq4qEQn%2f%2bXLo3aWMubjkjre3fCN2%2f0ke096a%2b1vyB8dJn3Z2kWWtC6IPSixgNpgFZk%3d) across Burton Avenue, Essa Road, Bradford Street, Dunlop Street, and Blake Street.) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/7 "2004-07-13T02:47:14Z")
Oh, and the Golden Horseshoe name? Typical 1950’s-style “civic boosterism”. This is the same kind of thing that named the old Miracle Mile, the long-eclipsed plaza at Eglinton and O’Connor Drive. (The Miracle Mile was officially opend by the Queen in around 1954!) Somehow the Golden Horseshoe name stuck around, although I don’t hear it as much as I used to. “GTA” for Greater Toronto Area seems to be much more common these days, even if it doesn’t mean the same thing. (The GTA stops at Burlington, and doesn’t include Hamilton, for instance, while the Golden Gorseshoe goes all the way around the end of the lake to, presumably, St. Catharines. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/8 "2004-07-13T02:52:08Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Highway 11 may continue north of Newmarket, but it is not necessarily named Yonge Street, not does the street numbering continue sequentially. (Part of Highway 11 appears to be named Yonge Street in Barrie, but, in Barrie, Highway 11 also travels across Burton Avenue, Essa Road, Bradford Street, Dunlop Street, and Blake Street.) Not to mention that it’s a divided highway in three places: in Thunder Bay, between North Bay & Callander, and again from just north of Huntsville to just outside Barrie. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/9 "2004-07-13T03:02:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Longest street in the world? Lonely Street, my friend. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/10 "2004-07-13T03:02:25Z")
I thought all the roads were connected, hence they’re _all_ the longest road. 🆒 \ ---
**Author:** ![Daizy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@Daizy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daizy)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/11 "2004-07-13T03:19:35Z")
[Varying answers](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=190833) from when this was asked last year. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![lynxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e99b99/32.png) [@lynxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynxie)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/12 "2004-07-13T07:52:10Z")
from wickipedia - Yonge Street (pronounced “young”), which has been listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world, is more than 200 years old and nearly 2,000 km long. As “Highway 11”, Yonge Street officially stretched 1,896 km (1,178 miles ). It starts at the edge (literally) of Lake Ontario in Toronto, in southern Ontario, Canada. From there, it runs north to Cochrane (about as far north as the roads run), gradually turns to the west as it goes around Lake Superior to Thunder Bay, and then to the town of Rainy River, bordering the state of Minnesota, United States. Officially, changes in provincial responsibility separated the now locally funded and controlled Yonge Street from Highway 11 during the 1990s, and Provincial Highway 11 does not start until after the town of Barrie, Ontario. This led to disputes over the “longest street in the world” claim of the approximately 56 km street. Yonge Street is said to have started as a trail created by Huron Indians. The trail was used by numerous European explorers, such as Samuel de Champlain in 1615, and later became a military route. It was named Yonge Street in 1793, after Sir George Yonge, the British Secretary of War at the time, by John Graves Simcoe, the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada (now Ontario). Simcoe also chose the site around the road as the Town of York (now Toronto), and had it paved to allow easier use by the military as a north-south route. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/13 "2004-07-13T13:17:50Z")
Imagine the address at the end of that street. “My address? Sure, it’s 982342353434593845034953 Yonge St…” ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/14 "2004-07-13T17:10:13Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > They promote Yonge Street as being 1900 kilometres long and going all the way to Rainy River, but they’re really talking about provincial Highway 11 when they say that. > > Yonge Street itself goes in a straight line from Queens Quay on the shore of Lake Ontario to Holland Landing. The street numbering is continuous through all the communities along this lengh, starting at 1 (the Toronto Star building on the northeast conrner of Yonge and Queens Quay) and going to addresses like 17000 Yonge Street in Newmarket. > > Highway 11 may continue north of Newmarket, but it is not necessarily named Yonge Street, not does the street numbering continue sequentially. (Part of Highway 11 appears to be named Yonge Street in Barrie, but, in Barrie, Highway 11 also [travels](http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?ovi=1&zoom=6&mapdata=lkA%2fomiQSEYz5ipmtktbtdVd4W%2fZQJwSX0%2byXteHIDA3PevePAQ4brl4zk16nZ5ED4CkDooyCAiRarefNqsbVw04S1p3%2b1UwrMA%2bi30GoC3m7k%2bD1OACdSouNrosa5cH%2b7y8iFarHjoT3U0EMauEA1meacpaCpzi7WjC0XSkpkj4GQ1fBT%2f0GZPrdtJJ9Owm%2bn17gljf%2bati5w8mq18niDYbz%2bKAj%2fUM47dkhXwdoQIYHV4XWqB4yTd%2b0ANA8Wp3XQ0DStdaQXq4qEQn%2f%2bXLo3aWMubjkjre3fCN2%2f0ke096a%2b1vyB8dJn3Z2kWWtC6IPSixgNpgFZk%3d) across Burton Avenue, Essa Road, Bradford Street, Dunlop Street, and Blake Street.) If we get to play by those rules then Independence Blvd. in Charlotte, NC is several hundred miles long as well. Wasn’t there at one point a road that went from Alaska to South America? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/15 "2004-07-13T19:00:42Z")
> [@lynxie](#): > > from wickipedia - > > Yonge Street (pronounced “young”), which has been listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world, is more than 200 years old… 200 years? Never! Get away! That old! Wow! Er, every time I go to visit my girlfriend I’m driving down a street ten times as old as that. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![lynxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e99b99/32.png) [@lynxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynxie)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/16 "2004-07-13T23:29:08Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > 200 years? Never! Get away! That old! Wow! > > Er, every time I go to visit my girlfriend I’m driving down a street ten times as old as that. 😃 (giggle) old is relative, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Marconi\_Schmeese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Marconi\_Schmeese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marconi_Schmeese)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/17 "2004-07-13T23:42:07Z")
Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in California is pretty long. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/18 "2004-07-14T00:01:03Z")
Western Avenue in Chicago isn’t as long as any of those, but it is 26 miles and is pretty straight. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/19 "2004-07-14T00:23:38Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Wasn’t there at one point a road that went from Alaska to South America? The Pan-American Highway is continuous for over 16,000 miles – with the exception (at least as of 1997) of a 54-mile stretch of the Darien Gap, the region surrounding the border between Panama and Colombia. As [this article](http://www.cnn.com/EARTH/9711/25/panama.darien.gap/) explains, reasons for the lack of completion range from ecological concerns to Panamanian fears of drug-related violence spilling over from their country’s southern neighbor (from which Panama declared independence in 1903, thus removing Colombia from the select list of bi-continental countries). ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790/20 "2004-07-14T00:54:14Z")
If we are to consider a thoroughfare as a street, shouldn’t this rule out roads that go across provinces, states, other countries? **World Eater** raises an interesting point. Shouldn’t a street be numbered beginning to end? The Guiness Book of World Records _used to_ publish the highest street address number which is why I am quoting from their 1974 edition: _ **The highest numbered house in the world is number 81,590 on M-19 in the village of Memphis near Richmond, Michigan.** _ Even this seems a bit suspicious. Would this person list their address as 81,590 M-19 Street Memphis, Michigan ? M-19 sure sounds like a highway doesn’t it? Any “Wolverine Staters” familiar with any of this? * * * **Sternvogel** Interesting article about the missing “link” in the Pan-American Highway. I thought there was yet another reason for the gap. Going from South to North, somewhere along the highway, automobile tires are washed to prevent the spread of cattle diseases into North America. Well, maybe this is done elsewhere and not in the Darien Gap. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-street-in-the-world/254790.md?page=2)