Geographic oddities

[KevinFromTexas]

I know we had a thread on this subject, and if someone remembers who started it, this one can be merged with it, but what are some of the geographic quirks of your city and state or province?

For example, I just read that Dalhart, Texas in the panhandle is closer to Santa Fe, N.M.; Oklahoma City; Cheyenne, Wyo.; Lincoln, Neb.; Topeka, Kan.; and Denver than it is to Austin.

[JManc]

Big Diomede (Russia) and Little Diomede (Alaska) always intrigued me since I was kid since the Soviet Union seemed so far away and was our mortal enemy but were in reality, closer to the US than Cuba; about a mile.

[James Bond Agent 007]

There is a Kansas City in Missouri, but there is no Missouri City in Kansas.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007

There is a Kansas City in Missouri, but there is no Missouri City in Kansas.

There is a Missouri City in Texas.

[SIGSEGV]

Counterintuitive (to me):
Reno is farther West than LA
Pittsburgh is farther East than Miami
Seattle is farther North than Quebec City
Santiago (Chile) is farther East than NYC

Oddities:

Premier, BC is accessible by road only through Hyder, AK, accessible by road only through Stewart, BC

The road network here, due to poor diplomatic relations, is insane:
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.8815393,44.4295176,11z

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Counterintuitive (to me):
Reno is farther West than LA
Pittsburgh is farther East than Miami
Seattle is farther North than Quebec City
Santiago (Chile) is farther East than NYC

Oddities:

Premier, BC is accessible by road only through Hyder, AK, accessible by road only through Stewart, BC

The road network here, due to poor diplomatic relations, is insane:
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.8815393,44.4295176,11z

I'm not surprised by Pittsburgh, and Seattle makes sense once you visualize the map in your head, but my brain just doesn't want to accept that Reno is farther west than LA is. That is a weird one.

And, yeah, Santiago. Especially considering it's on the west coast of South America. A lot of Americans take for granted that South America is more or less south of North America, but at least 95% of the continent is actually east of North America.

We also tend to think of Europe as being east of the US, but the bulk of the US is actually more in line with Africa than Europe. And if you draw a straight line from the west coast of Europe, you end up on the northern/northeast coast of South America.

[iheartthed]

The distance from New York City to Iceland is about the same as from New York City to San Francisco.

Atlanta is farther west than Detroit.

The east coast is counterintuitive. The five major east coast cities listed in order of physical distance from Detroit: Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.

Despite Detroit and Boston being roughly the same latitude, Detroit and Washington are actually much closer to each other than Detroit and Boston. In fact, Detroit and Washington are nearly as close to each other as are Boston and Washington.

[pj3000]

Ireland is the same size as West Virginia

South Korea is the same size as Indiana

North Korea is the same size as Pennsylvania

Syria is the same size as Washington

Afghanistan is the same size as Texas

Greece is the same size as Louisiana

Israel is the same size as New Jersey

Spain is the same size as California

Saudi Arabia is the same size as Alaska

Netherlands is the same size as Maryland

UK is the same size as Michigan

Italy is the same size as Arizona

[xzmattzx]

Fort Montgomery, in the very northeast corner of New York, on Lake Champlain, was actually built in Canada, according to the original survey line. Construction of the unnamed first fort on that spot was halted when this was discovered. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 ceded the fort to the US, and the international border now bumps up slightly in the area to allow the fort to be in the United States.

[Pedestrian]

Tucson, AZ, in the Sonoran Desert, has a popular beach town not very far away (Puerto Peñasco, Mexico).


http://www.rockypointbeachcondo.com/...oint-maps.html

Modern hotel strip foreground, old town in background

https://castawaysrockypoint.com/dire...o-rocky-point/

[CaliNative]

Isn't there a town named California in PA? Why? Also a college in the same town I guess called California Univ. I do believe there is also a Florida MO where the boy Sam Clemens dwelt before Hannibal. In CA there is a town named Pittsburgh. And there is a Las Vegas New Mexico. And a Los Angeles Chile. And a Paris Texas! And London Bridge is in the AZ desert!! My head is spinning

[edale]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Despite Detroit and Boston being roughly the same latitude, Detroit and Washington are actually much closer to each other than Detroit and Boston. In fact, Detroit and Washington are nearly as close to each other as are Boston and Washington.

That does surprise me. I just googled, and the drive time from Cincinnati to DC is barely shorter than the Detroit to DC drive. Even though Detroit is so much further north, and Cincy and DC are basically at the same latitude line, the difference is only like 20 minutes. Due to the mountains and lack of freeways in eastern OH and WV, you have to go north (almost to Pittsburgh) and then back south to get to Washington, whereas Detroit's a more straight shot.

[BillM]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Despite Detroit and Boston being roughly the same latitude, Detroit and Washington are actually much closer to each other than Detroit and Boston. In fact, Detroit and Washington are nearly as close to each other as are Boston and Washington.

Toronto and Washington are closer to each other than they are to Boston.

[DetroitSky]

There’s two sections of Erie Township, Michigan that’s only accessible by land from Toledo, Ohio. They’re located at the end of two peninsulas in Lake Erie.

[dave8721]

Miami is closer to the capital cities of 2 foreign countries than it is to the capital of its own state (closer to Nassau and Havana than Tallahassee).

[deja vu]

Originally Posted by DetroitSky

There’s two sections of Erie Township, Michigan that’s only accessible by land from Toledo, Ohio. They’re located at the end of two peninsulas in Lake Erie.

Yes! The lost peninsulas! That's the first one that came to mind for me too, for Michigan! These are all fascinating. I'll try a few -



1. The distance between Monroe (southeast portion of Michigan's lower peninsula) and Ironwood (western portion of Michigan's upper peninsula) is about 630 miles - more than the distance from Detroit to NYC. It's about a 10 hour drive either way. In the same amount of time it takes you to cross the state of Michigan diagonally by car, you could theoretically drive through a good chunk of Ohio, all of Pennsylvania, a good bit of New Jersey, and enter New York.


2. If traveling from Ironwood, MI to Niles, MI, it's about three hours quicker to drive through Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana (about an 8 hour trip), than it is to drive just through Michigan (about 11 hours) to get there.


3. The westernmost point in the US's eastern time zone is is in Michigan's UP. Ontonagon, MI has the longest lasting summer daylight in the EST (in the contiguous US). Of course, the tradeoff is it's dark by 4pm in the deep winter. A very thin slice of the western part of the UP is in the central time zone (I honestly just learned that right now).


4. Detroit is closer to Buffalo, NY than it is to Chicago, IL. Not sure if that is surprising to folks or not.

[bilbao58]

El Paso is closer to Los Angeles than it is to Beaumont.

[BnaBreaker]

The northeast tip of Tennessee is closer to downtown Toronto than it is to the southwest tip of Tennessee.

[TexasBoi]

Originally Posted by bilbao58

El Paso is closer to Los Angeles than it is to Beaumont.

Beaumont is actually a little closer to El Paso than it is to Los Angeles by about 80 miles. El Paso is closer to Los Angeles than it is to Texarkana. Texarkana is closer to Chicago than it is to El Paso.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by TexasBoi

Beaumont is actually a little closer to El Paso than it is to Los Angeles by about 80 miles. El Paso is closer to Los Angeles than it is to Texarkana. Texarkana is closer to Chicago than it is to El Paso.

Not driving distance. According to this website, Los Angeles is 28 miles closer by highway.

https://distancecalculator.globefeed...Calculator.asp

And this website https://www.distance-cities.com/dist...to-beaumont-tx says the distance, as the crow flies, between L.A. and El Paso is 699 miles while the distance, as the crow flies, between El Paso and Beaumont is 749.