# Your geographical misconceptions **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 30, 2020, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294 "2020-12-30T20:58:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 39
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2021, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/763 "2021-04-22T15:54:42Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Now I’m wondering why SI isn’t part of NJ, given the geography of the area. Here is at least one take on it… [https://www.statenislandhistorian.com/staten-island-part-new-york-instead-new-jersey.html](https://www.statenislandhistorian.com/staten-island-part-new-york-instead-new-jersey.html) _While Staten Island was rich in natural resources, it may very well have been an effort to control the access to New York’s harbor. If two different provinces controlled the narrows (New Jersey via Staten Island and New York via Brooklyn), is may well lead to disputes and competing taxes/tariffs on goods entering and leaving the port of New York._ _To settle the dispute, the Duke decreed that any island in the harbor that could be circumnavigated in 24 hours would belong to New York. The Duke of York contracted Christopher Billopp with the task of circumnavigating Staten Island. As the story goes, Billopp embarked in his ship, the Bentley, and successfully completed the trip in about 23 hours in 1675._ ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2021, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/764 "2021-04-22T17:48:33Z")
Interesting. A little forward thinking, of the kind that prospective money can generate. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2021, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/765 "2021-04-22T21:34:53Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Because of highly symbolic maps of NYC, I always thought that Staten Island was way out in NY harbor and could only be reached by the Staten Island Ferry. Not the worst geographical misconception about New York. [![](https://saulsteinbergfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/357-777x1024.jpg) ](https://saulsteinbergfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/357-777x1024.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/766 "2021-04-23T22:54:11Z")
NYC residents think Montreal is _a little north of Albany_. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/767 "2021-04-24T00:52:51Z")
Okay, Montreal is 220 miles or so north of Albany, 3-1/2 hours driving. More than “a little”. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/768 "2021-04-24T03:54:16Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Not the worst geographical misconception about New York. I love that illustration. When I was in NYC I had a poster of it on my office wall. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/769 "2021-04-24T11:58:16Z")
I believe it was a cover of The New Yorker. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/770 "2021-04-24T15:11:08Z")
Somewhere in our basement, we have the original magazine. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/771 "2021-04-24T16:04:09Z")
For a long time, I thought the Gulf of California extended north all the way into the USA, and it separated all of Baja California from the rest of Mexico. It actually becomes the Colorado River about 75 miles south of the border. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/772 "2021-04-24T17:16:02Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > It actually becomes the Colorado River about 75 miles south of the border. I was under the impression that the Colorado has so many straws stuck in it that it never actually makes to the ocean. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/773 "2021-04-24T17:26:55Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > I’m surprised how far north Europe is. Madrid, which is clearly in Southern Europe, is the same latitude as Boston, which is not Southern anything. I wasn’t _intellectually_ surprised at how north England was, but the actual shock of it being completely bright as day out before 5 am and not getting completely dark until midnight was jarring when I actually experienced it. But I wasn’t surprised at all at how far north Madrid was because I had already heard about how late the night life starts there which implies long daytime hours. But again, it was _slightly_ jarring to be descending into Madrid at 8 pm and have the pilot wish us a “good afternoon”. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/774 "2021-04-24T17:43:54Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I was under the impression that the Colorado has so many straws stuck in it that it never actually makes to the ocean. A quick look at Google Overhead view makes it clear that if there is flow, it’s not much. It’s still identifiable (barely) as a river when it passes the US / Mexican border south of Yuma AZ. In the ~40 miles before it becomes the estuary at the top of the _Golfo de California_ it turns into a **[braided river](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braided_river)** where there’s no telling whether any water molecules actually make it from the purely fresh river to the purely salty _golfo_ without first going underground as mud. If that wet. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/775 "2021-04-24T22:28:26Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > A quick look at Google Overhead view makes it clear that if there is flow, it’s not much. According to [National Geographic](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/partner-content-colorado-river-preserving-stressed-water-resources): > The Colorado River no longer reaches the Gulf, and instead peters out of existence miles short of the sea. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/776 "2021-04-25T01:00:54Z")
I just found one out today! I remember as a child I visited my grandmother in Flushing, Queens, and we went to a baseball game. She said that Yankee Stadium was too dangerous to go to so we went to Shea Stadium instead for a Mets game. Then, after the game, we too a subway back to Flushing. Thus, Shea Stadium had to have been somewhere else, entirely separate from Flushing, instead of being easily walkable, although perhaps not at night for someone who is already too afraid to go to Yankee Stadium. Before the game we even went to Flushing Meadows but I didn’t know it was called that, all I remember is that it held some remains of former exhibitions. It was probably not much closer to the former Shea Stadium than my grandmothers house! ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/777 "2021-04-25T01:06:53Z")
Doubt there would be any politicians on the Canadian Rushmore. More likely to be Stompin’ Tom, Gord Downie, Neil Peart or Leonard Cohen? ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/778 "2021-04-25T01:15:22Z")
But in regards to the question, which I think I answered before: 1. Some of the stops on the famous London Underground map look incredibly far apart or close together. Not always true! 2. If taking RyanAir to ?Frankfurt, don’t expect to be anywhere close to that city. Maybe a two hour drive? 3. Despite two Olympics, one thinks of Japan and pictures blossoming trees, not metres of snow. 4. My brother once told me, canoeing on the Ottawa River, only a few rivers in the world have waves. Dunno. He was usually right about stuff like that. 5. The drive from Southwestern to Northern Ontario is friggin’ long. One knows this, but somehow still underestimates. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/779 "2021-04-25T01:31:31Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > 1. The drive from Southwestern to Northern Ontario is friggin’ long. One knows this, but somehow still underestimates. Da Nort. It’s big eh? Real big! No, even bigger 'n dat! ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/780 "2021-04-25T04:02:40Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > The drive from Southwestern to Northern Ontario is friggin’ long. One knows this, but somehow still underestimates. What exactly does “northern Ontario” mean? Because it looks to me like two-thirds of Ontario is “you cannot drive to there”. The northern part of Ontario that you actually can drive to is in the lower third of the province. Even Quebec has a town you can drive to that is way farther north than any in Ontario, from what I can tell. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/781 "2021-04-25T04:19:38Z")
I can just say the furthest I have driven was beyond Thunder Bay. If ever invited to Kenora, Imma gonna fly. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/782 "2021-04-25T04:43:46Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I just found one out today! I remember as a child I visited my grandmother in Flushing, Queens, and we went to a baseball game. She said that Yankee Stadium was too dangerous to go to so we went to Shea Stadium instead for a Mets game. Then, after the game, we too a subway back to Flushing. > > Thus, Shea Stadium had to have been somewhere else, entirely separate from Flushing, instead of being easily walkable, although perhaps not at night for someone who is already too afraid to go to Yankee Stadium. Before the game we even went to Flushing Meadows but I didn’t know it was called that, all I remember is that it held some remains of former exhibitions. It was probably not much closer to the former Shea Stadium than my grandmothers house! Is it like in London, where if West Ham is playing was playing, it wasn’t safe to get on the tube at Upton Park? It wasn’t so much football hooliganism as massive crowds that made leaving the station unsafe. There were lots of police, but it was only a little bit about controlling drunken yobs, and mostly about controlling waaaay more people than the station was designed to get out safely without being crushed to death. On a match day people in the know would exit at East Ham instead and walk up. Going home was different because not all the fans left the area at the same time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294.md?page=38) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294.md?page=40)