Farthest away from a state line is a Welcome Sign

[roadman65]

https://goo.gl/maps/Wx9M6YTZbQbaNA3V7
In North Bergen, NJ several miles after NJ 495 enters the state from New York, motorists get their first greeting from the Garden State.

[hotdogPi]

There are probably a few at airports.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

No longer exists, but before the Stillwater bridge rebuild the MN welcome sign on westbound MN 36 was posted on the ramp at its split with MN 95 a few miles south of town.

The only ones I can think of where constraints push the welcome monument further in from the border are on I-94 at Hudson (at the weigh station) and on I-535 (at the I-35 interchange; will likely be removed shortly in anticipation of that interchange being rebuilt, if it hasn't been already), but those are only about a mile from the border.

[US 89]

There are probably a few at airports.

Indeed, the Salt Lake City airport has a Welcome to Utah sign, and that's about 52 miles as the crow flies from the nearest border. Atlanta also has one, approximately 50 miles from the closest state line.

Excluding airports, the biggest example of this I've seen personally is US 491 entering New Mexico. The actual line is marked only by a change to much shittier pavement, and the NM welcome sign doesn't show up for another mile or two if I remember correctly.

[MNHighwayMan]

No longer exists, but before the Stillwater bridge rebuild the MN welcome sign on westbound MN 36 was posted on the ramp at its split with MN 95 a few miles south of town.

It got moved after construction started. I took this picture of it in 2016, which is right about here.

[J N Winkler]

Some state line crossings on state-maintained routes are not marked at all.  Oklahoma SH 18, for example, has no welcome sign as one enters from Kansas along K-15 (may have something to do with also entering the Osage reservation).

[jeffandnicole]

I-295 North coming in from Delaware: About 1.7 miles.
NJ Turnpike North coming in from Delaware: About 2.5 miles.
Getting off 295 or the NJ Turnpike at 4 possible exits before either of those signs: You'll never pass by a welcome sign.

US 322 East coming in from PA: About 2.2 miles.

I-76 coming in from PA: Also about 2.2 miles

I-676 coming in from PA: Via US 30 East, 1.1 miles, but it's oddly placed far off the westbound side of the roadway, and is unique compared to the other NJ welcome signage: https://goo.gl/maps/izgaof7XzVDd9kXk8 .

[ErmineNotyours]

Anacortes Ferry Terminal, about 20 air miles from Canada.  Intrastate travel from the islands also pass this sign.

[US 89]

Some state line crossings on state-maintained routes are not marked at all.  Oklahoma SH 18, for example, has no welcome sign as one enters from Kansas along K-15 (may have something to do with also entering the Osage reservation).

I wouldn't think it's a reservation-specific feature, since SH 99 does have a welcome sign at the Kansas border.

[roadman65]

This is not to compete, but to see how many are far off from the point of entry before acknowledgement.  I know space limitations are a factor mainly, but some entering through small towns usually have them after you leave the town.

The one on NJ Route 495 is odd because there used to be one sooner at the top of the helix that was the standard NJ Welcome Sign of the 1950's era with the default speed limits on it and white on green similar to that of US 9W in Alpine where the post PIP alignment deviates from the original route (now used as a hiking trail).

[hbelkins]

Kentucky has welcome signs at the exits to its general aviation airports.

[Mrt90]

I've always thought it was odd that the "Welcome to Wisconsin" sign on Hwy 32 was 3 miles north of the WI/IL state line.  Most of the people that pass this sign probably are locals not people coming up from Illinois.  You drive through almost the entire Village of Pleasant Prairie to get to this sign.  It seems like there were plenty of other places where it could have been placed closer to the IL state line but maybe they put it here because the historical marker is here?  When you take this road south into Illinois the "Welcome to Illinois" sign is within a few hundred feet of the state line.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.534515,-87.8247348,3a,37.5y,23.77h,83.81t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sLWoeNzTHE-fvjfANYQCjpA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

[KEVIN_224]

Are there any areas where the welcome sign is before the state line?

[CtrlAltDel]

Are there any areas where the welcome sign is before the state line?

Yes. This welcome sign for Minnesota, for example, is in South Dakota:

[okroads]

I was just thinking about this concept today when driving I-35 from Oklahoma City to Kansas. The "Welcome to Kansas" sign is posted about 1 1/4 miles north of the OK/KS state line.

[fwydriver405]

Until some time ago, there used to be a WELCOME TO MAINE sign a little less than 2 km (1.25 miles) on SR 4 in South Berwick, Maine coming in from Rollinsford, New Hampshire on New Hampshire Route 4.

On a unrelated side note, if one were to enter Maine from I-95 from NH, take exit 3 to SR-236 NB, follow SR-236 NB for 17 km (10.6 miles) and then get off on SR 4 NB at the northbound split, a driver might encounter the WELCOME TO MAINE twice on their journey. This also used to happen if you were exiting I-95 using exit 3, or taking Bypass 1 to it's parent highway, US 1 after the I-95 interchange.

Former WELCOME TO MAINE sign on SR-4 NB

[Rothman]

There are probably a few at airports.

Yeah, NY has started putting up I Love NY signs and the like at airports as welcome signage.

[J N Winkler]

I was just thinking about this concept today when driving I-35 from Oklahoma City to Kansas. The "Welcome to Kansas" sign is posted about 1 1/4 miles north of the OK/KS state line.

I have always assumed that "Welcome to Kansas" appears quite late in the state line sequence because "Welcome to the Kansas Turnpike" (with KTA sunflower marker) is one of the first signs seen.  Is it still up?  The very first sign seen after crossing the state line (which overlaps the centerline of bridge 0.000) is "Pedestrians Prohibited."

Metro KC is full of cases where state welcome signing on either side is not precisely at the state line because it follows the thalweg of the Missouri River and then an arterial street.

[SteveG1988]

US9 on the ferry, when you touch down on the ferry dock it says "welcome to cape may NJ" you may think that is rather close, but the state line is, using google earth's measurement tool, and the cross over point of the US9 ferry line on google with the state line at the location: 38°52'47.5"N 75°04'02.9"W. 8.63 miles using a rough approximation of the line drawn on google for the ferry.

[CtrlAltDel]

Another long-distance sign is the Mississippi sign on US-49 heading east from Arkansas. The sign is more than 2 miles away from the border, seemingly because it's on the other side of a levee.

[vdeane]

NY is generally good about putting welcome signs at/near the border, but there are exceptions.  Entering from MA on I-90, the sign is a bit over a mile in, inside the exit B3 interchange.  Entering on NY 440 via the Bayonne, the sign is also a mile in - two exits between it and the border!

[formulanone]

There are probably a few at airports.

There are large "Welcome to Arizona" signs posted on all interstates, roughly a mile or so from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. That seems to be the furthest from any of Arizona's state lines.

[SP Cook]

The state line between Virginia and West Virginia is the middle point of the East River Mountain Tunnel, and is marked only with a small sign out of the motorist's view for legal purposes.  The welcome signs are a reasonable view space on each side, which on the WV side is actually after the first exit. 

Many states, Kentucky, Virginia, Wisconsin, many others, put replicas of their welcome signs in the welcome center, for photographic purposes. 

WV has the same welcome sign that would appear on a secondary road on the access road from the Charleston airport. 

[1995hoo]

Virginia has one as you leave Dulles Airport–or at least there used to be one (haven't had to go there in several years and I don't know whether Metrorail construction might have caused its removal)–but it's certainly not as far from the state line, whether as the crow flies or as the car drives, as the Utah example given further up the thread.

[Scott5114]

The ODOT sign shop is in Oklahoma City, so any brand-new welcome signs are about as far from a state line as you can get