This is true? - Geographic oddities that defy conventional wisdom

[empirestate]

The western tip of Virginia is further west than Toledo, OH.
Because portions of the Aleutian islands extend west of 180W, Alaska is both the northernmost, westernmost, and easternmost state in the US.

Or Detroit.

I dunno, I've been to both Alaska and Detroit, and they're quite dissimilar.

[cpzilliacus]

Mostly unrelated, I was kind of surprised recently to find out that Copenhagen is on an island.

Only in recent times (since 1995) has the island of Zealand (Danish Sjælland) been connected to mainland places in Denmark and in Sweden. Before that, all land traffic (including a lot of railroad traffic) had to move by ferries (I have ridden the ferry that used to float passenger train traffic from the Swedish city of Helsingborg to the Danish city of Helsingør (Elsinore in English - it's the same place that William Shakespeare used for his play Hamlet)).   

The Great Belt Fixed Link (consists of a long box girder bridge and a big suspension span plus a long tunnel for railroad traffic) came first, open in 1998 and connected Zealand and the Jutland peninsula, and thus continental Europe. 

In 2000, the Øresund Bridge-Tunnel opened, connecting Zealand to the Swedish province of Scania allowing a significant improvement in travel time for highway and rail traffic (the lower deck of the bridge is occupied by two railroad tracks).

The one remaining busy ferry operation in Denmark that carries railroad and highway traffic operates between the Danish town of Rødby and the northern German harbor of Puttgarden, but that too will be replaced by the end of this decade with the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link, which will be a long (17.6 kilometer (10.9 miles)) immersed tube tunnel with four highway lanes and two electrified railroad tracks.

[Flint1979]

Atlanta is further west than Detroit?
Not sure why, but that seems really weird to me.

If you've ever traveled south on I-75 you'll notice that it leans a little more to the west than to the east or on a straight line. It runs southwest out of Detroit, then has a northeast-southwest curve between Findlay and Lima, Ohio. Cincinnati is slightly more west than Dayton is too. In Kentucky it slightly goes more east but once you get to Tennessee it starts going more west again, then has the concurrency with I-40 where it's going west even more. After it gets back on it's own routing it runs southwest to Chattanooga. After entering Georgia though it starts running more east towards Atlanta. Still though it's west of Detroit slightly. Atlanta is due south of Cincinnati though.

[hotdogPi]

Los Angeles - Chicago - Boston is a straight line once you account for the curvature of the earth.

As a corollary, this means that US 6 might actually be less curved than US 20, despite US 6 heading south near its western end.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Yep, US 6 is way straighter than US 20, both in the map and taking Earth's curvature into account. Dipping South helps US 6, while US 20 has to swing South (on top of the detour to Yellowstone): A straight line between US 20's endpoints goes through North Dakota, while a straight line connecting both endpoints of US 6 stays relatively near its route (note, however, that when US 6 was undisputably the longest US Route it deviated considerably from such a line in Nevada).

[kphoger]

The western tip of Virginia is further west than Toledo, OH.
Because portions of the Aleutian islands extend west of 180W, Alaska is both the northernmost, westernmost, and easternmost state in the US.

Or Detroit.

I dunno, I've been to both Alaska and Detroit, and they're quite dissimilar.

No, it meant "Alaska is the northernmost, westernmost, and easternmost state in Detroit".

[Max Rockatansky]

The western tip of Virginia is further west than Toledo, OH.
Because portions of the Aleutian islands extend west of 180W, Alaska is both the northernmost, westernmost, and easternmost state in the US.

Or Detroit.

I dunno, I've been to both Alaska and Detroit, and they're quite dissimilar.

And yet, both are barren wastelands devoid of human life. 

[kphoger]

cold too

[bwana39]

Dalhart, TX is closer to parts of twenty three states than it is to its own state's capital.

NO!

Oklahoma, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Utah, Missouri, Nebraska, and MAYBE IOWA.

There might be several different locations in Texas that are closer to multiple states than they are to Austin which together MIGHT add up to 23

[hotdogPi]

Dalhart, TX is closer to parts of twenty three states than it is to its own state's capital.

NO!

Oklahoma, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Utah, Missouri, Nebraska, and MAYBE IOWA.

There might be several different locations in Texas that are closer to multiple states than they are to Austin which together MIGHT add up to 23

Replacing Austin with Port Arthur, and including Mexican states, I count exactly 23.

TX, NM, AZ, NV, ID, UT, MT, WY, SD, NE, KS, OK, MN, IA, MO, AR, LA, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, Durango. Add IL (#24) if you measure to the extreme southeast corner of Texas.

However, you're replying to a 2015 post.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

I already answered that back in the day (and yes, Iowa can be thrown in) (quote fixed):

12 plus two Mexican states, actually . There is even a part in extreme southwestern Iowa that is closer to Dalhart TX than the Texas capitol.

[CoreySamson]

What blows me away is that Orlando is further east than Jacksonville.

Also, Houston is pretty far south. New Orleans and Cairo both lie north of it.

[I-55]

If you draw a straight line connecting I-65's two termini, the route deviates to as far as 100 miles away from the line between Louisville and Elizabethtown, Kentucky (with a length of only 887 miles). Other than ~18 miles combined near its termini, the entirety of I-65 exists east of this line.

If you take I-65's outline and the line between termini, you can kind of see a mountain.

[KCRoadFan]

I was surprised to find out that Louisville, KY is north of San Francisco.

Louisville - 38.2 north latitude
SF - 37.8 north

In addition:

Los Angeles (34.0 north) is north of Atlanta (33.75 north).
The southern tip of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico is at about the same longitude as Four Corners (AZ/NM and UT/CO borders).

[Bruce]

Seattle is at a latitude that is further north than St. Johns, Newfoundland

[GenExpwy]

The home football stadiums of five Division I universities (Temple, Penn, Ohio State, Illinois, Colorado) are each within 7 miles of 40° North latitude.

[KCRoadFan]

The home football stadiums of five Division I universities (Temple, Penn, Ohio State, Illinois, Colorado) are each within 7 miles of 40° North latitude.

I guess I didn't think that Boulder and Philly would be at the same latitude.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

And a section of line 15 of the Beijing subway straddles that latitude as well. Now that is something.

[keithvh]

Arkansas borders six other states.  It is possible to start somewhere in Arkansas, travel due south, and be able to cross into any of the bordering states.

(A different point for each of the bordering states)

This is true for Tennessee also, except that Tennessee borders 8 different states.

(1-4) MS, AL, NC, and GA are obvious.

(5-6) due to the curves of the Mississippi, one can go south from TN into either MO or AR.

(7) at Land of the Lakes, there is a spot to go south from TN into KY.

(8) TN has a little notch at its NE Corner, from which you can go south into VA.

[empirestate]

Arkansas borders six other states.  It is possible to start somewhere in Arkansas, travel due south, and be able to cross into any of the bordering states.

(A different point for each of the bordering states)

This is true for Tennessee also, except that Tennessee borders 8 different states.

(1-4) MS, AL, NC, and GA are obvious.

(5-6) due to the curves of the Mississippi, one can go south from TN into either MO or AR.

(7) at Land of the Lakes, there is a spot to go south from TN into KY.

(8) TN has a little notch at its NE Corner, from which you can go south into VA.

It's also true for New York, including the province of Ontario–but not Quebec. (And you also have to exclude the maritime boundary with Rhode Island.)

However, if you switch to due north, it works everywhere, including Quebec and Rhode Island. You can also make it work with east, although some of the jogs are quite minuscule to do this.

[SkyPesos]

I found out a couple of days ago the Pittsburgh (longitude -79.9959) is east of Miami (-80.1918), and Jacksonville (-81.6557) and Cleveland (-81.6944) are very close as well.. So for those people that really hate diagonal roads, keep in mind that I-95 in FL is in the same grid position as I-77 and I-79.

[hotdogPi]

The population within Boston's first beltway (128 and former 128), between the first and second beltways (I-495 and MA 25), and between the second and third beltways (NH 101/NH 13/MA 13/I-190/MA 146/RI 146/I-195, and then following MA 25) is almost exactly the same, with approximately 1.8 million people each.

[1995hoo]

Mostly unrelated, I was kind of surprised recently to find out that Copenhagen is on an island.

Being a geography nerd, I found that out a long time ago now, but it's one of those things that people might go their entire life without knowing and I wouldn't really blame them. As a point of comparison, there's probably plenty of people in Europe that don't know Montreal is on an island. Then again, there's probably plenty of people in the US that don't know that, either!

I'd wager there are a fair number of people, even New York City residents, who don't know that Brooklyn and Queens are predominantly located on Long Island ("predominantly" to account for various small islands within those boroughs). The combination of all the bridges and tunnels leading to the other three boroughs, the overall size of the area, the signs guiding you east to Long Island, and the idea of "Long Island" culturally being distinct from New York City all give the illusion that Brooklyn and Queens are part of the mainland, when really the only part of New York City that's on the mainland is the Bronx and, legally, one small part of Manhattan (Marble Hill).

[Chris]

Due to international borders it's easy to overlook how densely populated northwestern Europe is.

Southeastern Netherlands is a logistics hotspot, because you can reach nearly 150 million people within a 500 km / 6 hour truck driving radius.



By comparison, if you drop a point near Philadelphia, you get less than half that in a 500 km  (300 mi) radius: 68 million people.



Tool: https://www.freemaptools.com/find-population.htm

[kalvado]

Due to international borders it's easy to overlook how densely populated northwestern Europe is.

Southeastern Netherlands is a logistics hotspot, because you can reach nearly 150 million people within a 500 km / 6 hour truck driving radius.

By comparison, if you drop a point near Philadelphia, you get less than half that in a 500 km  (300 mi) radius: 68 million people.

Tool: https://www.freemaptools.com/find-population.htm

Not a very good comparison, IMHO, as there are much more mountains in US circle than in European. I would rather from the blue banana shape on the coastal US