Bridge Regions

[roadman65]

I thought of this as Maine has only one state neighbor that is New Hampshire.  To drive into Maine fro elsewhere in the US requires a transit through the Granite State or leaving the US for Canada.

Also to visit New England from elsewhere in the United States requires a transit via New York ( or again Canada) as New England is locked from the rest by New York State.

I was also noticing the same for the five southernmost NJ counties of Atlantic, Camden, Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem as well. To arrive to any of these from North Jersey requires a transit through Burlington County, NJ as that particular county locks those five in place being it spans almost the entire width of the Garden State, as it quite don't reach the ocean as Atlantic and Ocean counties both share a wetland and waterway boundary, however with no roadway bridges or causeways being inter county.  Also, one can cross the Delaware River and transit two PA counties to avoid a transit through Burlington.


Anyone know of a regional entity that separates one area to require a transit between mainstream and the isolation like those I just cited?

[jp the roadgeek]

Point Roberts, WA requires a trip through Canada unless accessed by boat.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Point Roberts, WA requires a trip through Canada unless accessed by boat.

Same with Angle Inlet, MN.

[Dirt Roads]

The small Ravens Rocks section of Jefferson County, West Virginia can only be reached from Loudoun County (Virginia) via SR-601 (Ravens Rock Road), which runs along the Blue Ridge up from Snickers Gap.  Students that attend Washington High School in Charles Town must be transported through Loudoun County and Clarke County in Virginia, which is only 17 miles via the shortcut.  Before the new high school was completed in 2007, students had to attend (then) Jefferson County High School in Shenandoah Junction, about a 25 mile trip through the same three counties.  I'm pretty sure that the residents of Ravens Rock still have a Bluemont, Virginia address (but sometimes the addresses now pop up as Harpers Ferry).

West Virginia also has another disconnected community that probably doesn't qualify for what the OP is looking for.  Waiteville (population 185) in southeastern Monroe County, is nestled in the Sweet Springs Valley between Peters Mountain and Potts Mountain, in a pocket where the Virginia state line jumps back-and-forth between these two mountain ranges.  The main road is CR-17 that enters from Giles County, Virginia and leaves into Craig County, Virginia.  Historically, you could only reach Waiteville from Virginia during much of the year.  Nowadays, the two backroads from Waiteville northward into the rest of Monroe County are paved, leading to one road up to a much improved Zenith Road along the ridgeline of Peters Mountain to get to Gap Mills, the closest town in [mainland] West Virginia.  The post office at Waiteville was closed back in 2009, but it appears that residents still use a Waiteville address and zip code.  I highly suspect that Waiteville residents are served by the post office in nearby Paint Bank, Virginia, but I still can't find any hard evidence.

[bulldog1979]

By road, all traffic headed to Keweenaw County from the rest of the state of Michigan not only has to pass through Houghton County, but it also has to pass over the Portage Canal Lift Bridge.

All road traffic between the Upper Peninsula and Lower Michigan has to cross the Mackinac Bridge and cross the Emmet—Cheboygan and Mackinac—Cheboygan county lines. Otherwise traffic would have to go around Lake Michigan through Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, or around Lake Huron through Ontario.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

By road, all traffic headed to Keweenaw County from the rest of the state of Michigan not only has to pass through Houghton County, but it also has to pass over the Portage Canal Lift Bridge.

All road traffic between the Upper Peninsula and Lower Michigan has to cross the Mackinac Bridge and cross the Emmet—Cheboygan and Mackinac—Cheboygan county lines. Otherwise traffic would have to go around Lake Michigan through Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, or around Lake Huron through Ontario.

Excluding long-range Canadian detours, in Minnesota there's this small set of Russian dolls: you must pass through Lake County to get to Cook County, and you also must pass through St. Louis County to get to Lake County.

[webny99]

To get from Upstate NY to NYC and Long Island, you have to either go through Westchester County, or leave the state entirely and go through NJ and possibly PA.

[tchafe1978]

Door County, WI is accessible only by going through Kewaunee County, unless travelling by water. Also the portion of Door County north of Sturgeon Bay is only accessible by going over one of two bridges in Sturgeon Bay.

[zachary_amaryllis]

I don't know if it's still operating but..

There used to be a school and small development along the Laramie River Road. The school's mailing address and phone number were Jelm, WY, though the school was actually in Colorado. The school was called Glen-something, not the same as the nearby Glendevey. The road is closed during the winter from CO 14 to (not sure where), which meant one had to go through Wyoming to get there. One could theoretically get there via Red Feather / Deadman etc, but I'm pretty sure those roads are either closed, or just impassable, during the winter.

[hbelkins]

West Virginia also has another disconnected community that probably doesn't qualify for what the OP is looking for.  Waiteville (population 185) in southeastern Monroe County, is nestled in the Sweet Springs Valley between Peters Mountain and Potts Mountain, in a pocket where the Virginia state line jumps back-and-forth between these two mountain ranges.  The main road is CR-17 that enters from Giles County, Virginia and leaves into Craig County, Virginia.  Historically, you could only reach Waiteville from Virginia during much of the year.  Nowadays, the two backroads from Waiteville northward into the rest of Monroe County are paved, leading to one road up to a much improved Zenith Road along the ridgeline of Peters Mountain to get to Gap Mills, the closest town in [mainland] West Virginia.  The post office at Waiteville was closed back in 2009, but it appears that residents still use a Waiteville address and zip code.  I highly suspect that Waiteville residents are served by the post office in nearby Paint Bank, Virginia, but I still can't find any hard evidence.

I've driven CR 17 twice, going from Pearisburg to Paint Bank; the last time being last summer. But I've never driven across the mountain to get to that area without straying into Virginia.

Another West Virginia example would be Vulcan. It's accessible only via bridge crossing the river from Pike County, Ky. I remember a news story years ago that the residents of that community were trying to get West Virginia to build a new bridge to replace a failing one, but when they had no success, they tried to get the Soviet Union to fund the bridge (this was during the height of the Cold War).

Someone eventually built a new bridge there. I've seen it from KY 194, but I've never crossed it. I think it may be the only crossing from Kentucky to West Virginia that I have not driven. I may need to fix that before too long.

You can't get from Fulton County, Ky., to any other part of the state without going through Hickman County.

[Dirt Roads]

Oh yeah, West Virginia's also got this Panhandle thing going on:

Eastern Panhandle (W-to-E):  Morgan County; Berkeley County; Jefferson County
Northern Panhandle (S-to-N):  Marshall County, Ohio County, Brooke County, Hancock County

And of course, Brooke County is home to Weirton, the only city in the United States that stretches completely across from one state border (Ohio) to the other state border (Pennsylvania).  Someday, Hancock Maryland might get added to that list.  Which certainly means that we should add to this list as well.

Western Maryland (E-to-W):  Washington County, Alleghany County, Garrett County

[skluth]

There are several places along the Mississippi River, especially south of St Louis, which require entering another state - often requiring going over a bridge to do so. The best known is Kaskaskia, IL. Other similar places include this oxbow in Kentucky, this heavily engineered stretch between Tennessee and Arkansas, and by Eagle Lake, MS.

[-- US 175 --]

Carter Lake, IA is another example.  It is on the other side of the Missouri River from the rest of IA.  You have to go into NE first if you want to go from Carter Lake and the rest of IA.

[skluth]

Carter Lake, IA is another example.  It is on the other side of the Missouri River from the rest of IA.  You have to go into NE first if you want to go from Carter Lake and the rest of IA.

The Missouri River has one of my favorites; St Joseph airport requires crossing a bridge across the Missouri into Kansas to get to the airport.

[Flint1979]

In order to get from the small Lost Peninsula to the rest of Michigan you have to travel through Lucas County, Ohio.

[kphoger]

Canada, for Alaska.

[jp the roadgeek]

Going from Fishers Island, NY, which is part of the town of Southhold; to the rest of the town, which is on the north fork of Long Island, requires taking one ferry to New London, CT; then another to Orient Point. 

[Big John]

Door County, WI is accessible only by going through Kewaunee County, unless travelling by water. Also the portion of Door County north of Sturgeon Bay is only accessible by going over one of two bridges in Sturgeon Bay.

There is now a 3rd bridge.

[bm7]

This area of Nebraska is east of the Missouri river, just south of the Iowa/Missouri border. In order to get from there to the rest of Nebraska by road, you need to drive into Missouri, then Iowa, then Nebraska.

In the south of that section, there appears to be a dirt trail that goes into Missouri. To get to the rest of Missouri from there, you would need to cross borders 4 times, going into Nebraska > Missouri > Iowa > Missouri. Unlike the first area which has some farms, this area looks to just be swampland so I doubt many people are needing to take such a trip.