This is true? - Geographic oddities that defy conventional wisdom

[hbelkins]

Bristol VA is closer to several other other state capitals (Charleston WV, Nashville TN, Raleigh NC, Atlanta GA, Frankfort KY, Columbia SC) than it is its own capital of Richmond.

Have also heard this said about the three West Virginia eastern panhandle counties. Closer to Harrisburg, Trenton, Annapolis, Richmond and possibly Dover than to Charleston.

[kurumi]

The border between Pennsylvania and Delaware is an arc*, with a radius of 12 miles centered on the courthouse in New Castle, DE.

More Pennsylvania: in the 18th century, Connecticut claimed about 7200 miles of land inside PA as Westmoreland County, Connecticut. This had some support from England, but not from Pennsylvanians, and a set of skirmishes (the "Pennamite Wars") erupted. Connecticut eventually yielded its claim. The westernmost extent of the land was about due north from Baltimore.

* not a perfect circle... a series of arcs feathered together, because surveying

[roadman65]

From Pensacola to Key West is as far as driving across Texas, or close to it.

St. John's, Newfoundland is east of Bermuda.

The Atlantic Ocean is much narrower than the US between the easternmost part of Brazil and the westernmost part of the Continent of Africa.

[empirestate]

More Pennsylvania: in the 18th century, Connecticut claimed about 7200 miles of land inside PA as Westmoreland County, Connecticut. This had some support from England, but not from Pennsylvanians, and a set of skirmishes (the "Pennamite Wars") erupted. Connecticut eventually yielded its claim. The westernmost extent of the land was about due north from Baltimore.

The "Connecticut Gore" has something to do with this, I believe.

[Pete from Boston]

More Pennsylvania: in the 18th century, Connecticut claimed about 7200 miles of land inside PA as Westmoreland County, Connecticut. This had some support from England, but not from Pennsylvanians, and a set of skirmishes (the "Pennamite Wars") erupted. Connecticut eventually yielded its claim. The westernmost extent of the land was about due north from Baltimore.

The "Connecticut Gore" has something to do with this, I believe.

And the Connecticut Western Reserve in Ohio, settled by noted Nutmegger Moses Cleaveland, among others.  This land was of course cleft (get it?) from Connecticut in exchange for forgiveness of war debts, as was the practice with states maintaining sea-to-sea claims.

[6a]

The border between Pennsylvania and Delaware is an arc*, with a radius of 12 miles centered on the courthouse in New Castle, DE.


* not a perfect circle... a series of arcs feathered together, because surveying

Stuff like this fascinates me. It was the attempt to finally survey the 12 mile arc that led to the Mason Dixon Line.

Another favorite is the border between the Carolinas. I prefer to think early surveyors were drunk off their ass the whole time, although reality is probably more like only half the time

[TravelingBethelite]

Bristol VA is closer to several other other state capitals (Charleston WV, Nashville TN, Raleigh NC, Atlanta GA, Frankfort KY, Columbia SC) than it is its own capital of Richmond.

Have also heard this said about the three West Virginia eastern panhandle counties. Closer to Harrisburg, Trenton, Annapolis, Richmond and possibly Dover than to Charleston.

On this same vein, more than half of Massachusetts are closer to three other state capitals (Hartford, CT, Albany, NY, and Providence, RI, than they are to Boston.

[CtrlAltDel]

Bristol VA is closer to several other other state capitals (Charleston WV, Nashville TN, Raleigh NC, Atlanta GA, Frankfort KY, Columbia SC) than it is its own capital of Richmond.

Have also heard this said about the three West Virginia eastern panhandle counties. Closer to Harrisburg, Trenton, Annapolis, Richmond and possibly Dover than to Charleston.

On this same vein, more than half of Massachusetts are closer to three other state capitals (Hartford, CT, Albany, NY, and Providence, RI, than they are to Boston.

A map that shows which capital is closest to a given location is called a Voronoi map. Here's one for the US.

[bing101]

http://www.visitmammoth.com/about-mammoth/directions/

Mammoth lakes is closer to The San Joaquin Valley but Mammoth Lakes get counted as Southern California simply because they attract Los Angeles residents going on vacation to the mountains.

[SD Mapman]

Bristol VA is closer to several other other state capitals (Charleston WV, Nashville TN, Raleigh NC, Atlanta GA, Frankfort KY, Columbia SC) than it is its own capital of Richmond.

Have also heard this said about the three West Virginia eastern panhandle counties. Closer to Harrisburg, Trenton, Annapolis, Richmond and possibly Dover than to Charleston.

On this same vein, more than half of Massachusetts are closer to three other state capitals (Hartford, CT, Albany, NY, and Providence, RI, than they are to Boston.

A map that shows which capital is closest to a given location is called a Voronoi map. Here's one for the US.

Is Bismarck supposed to be on the Canadian border?

[CtrlAltDel]

Bristol VA is closer to several other other state capitals (Charleston WV, Nashville TN, Raleigh NC, Atlanta GA, Frankfort KY, Columbia SC) than it is its own capital of Richmond.

Have also heard this said about the three West Virginia eastern panhandle counties. Closer to Harrisburg, Trenton, Annapolis, Richmond and possibly Dover than to Charleston.

On this same vein, more than half of Massachusetts are closer to three other state capitals (Hartford, CT, Albany, NY, and Providence, RI, than they are to Boston.

A map that shows which capital is closest to a given location is called a Voronoi map. Here's one for the US.

Is Bismarck supposed to be on the Canadian border?

Good catch. Here's one that seems a bit better.

[webfil]

Following Voronoï polygons, the majority of the population of the province of Québec (57% or 4,680,984 people) live in an area where the closest capital is Montpellier, VT.

27% of the population (2,224,200 people) live closer to Québec City than any other capital.

The largest area of capital proximity on the territory of the province (land + water) is Québec city (501,203.9 km²), but Iqaluit is not too far behind (455,797.6 km²)

Also, most of the Labrador is closer either to Charlottetown, Fredericton or Iqaluit rather than Saint John's (NL).

[hbelkins]

Wish that map had a little more detail. It makes my area look much closer to the Frankfort/Charleston line than it really is. Frankfort can be reached in a little less than two hours while it takes nearly three to get to Charleston.

[oscar]

http://www.visitmammoth.com/about-mammoth/directions/

Mammoth lakes is closer to The San Joaquin Valley but Mammoth Lakes get counted as Southern California simply because they attract Los Angeles residents going on vacation to the mountains.

That, plus the mountains north and west of Mammoth (with many passes closed in the winter, and winter weather sometimes also restricting travel on the higher elevations of US 395) make it easier for skiers to reach from the south than from the Valley and the Bay Area.

[Duke87]

Wish that map had a little more detail. It makes my area look much closer to the Frankfort/Charleston line than it really is. Frankfort can be reached in a little less than two hours while it takes nearly three to get to Charleston.

That logically puts you roughly half an hour west of the line. Which is fairly close.

Meanwhile the map shows which capital is closest as the crow flies, not which is the fastest to drive to. Much of Long Island may be closest to Hartford, but the fastest capital for them to drive to (traffic notwithstanding) is Trenton because Robert Moses was unable to get his Sound Crossing built.


It's especially interesting when you get cases where the closest capital is not even in an adjacent state. A piece of Virginia is closer to Dover than any other state capital. And a tiny sliver of Alabama is closest to Baton Rouge.

Perhaps even more impressive given how narrow a space the line has to squeeze through to make this true, there is NOT any part of Connecticut that is closer to Trenton than Hartford, nor is there any part of New Jersey that's closer to Hartford than Trenton. The line misses the southwestern tip of Connecticut by 2-3 miles.

[Pete from Boston]

Wish that map had a little more detail. It makes my area look much closer to the Frankfort/Charleston line than it really is. Frankfort can be reached in a little less than two hours while it takes nearly three to get to Charleston.

That logically puts you roughly half an hour west of the line. Which is fairly close.

Meanwhile the map shows which capital is closest as the crow flies, not which is the fastest to drive to. Much of Long Island may be closest to Hartford, but the fastest capital for them to drive to (traffic notwithstanding) is Trenton because Robert Moses was unable to get his Sound Crossing built.


It's especially interesting when you get cases where the closest capital is not even in an adjacent state. A piece of Virginia is closer to Dover than any other state capital. And a tiny sliver of Alabama is closest to Baton Rouge.

Perhaps even more impressive given how narrow a space the line has to squeeze through to make this true, there is NOT any part of Connecticut that is closer to Trenton than Hartford, nor is there any part of New Jersey that's closer to Hartford than Trenton. The line misses the southwestern tip of Connecticut by 2-3 miles.

My limited experience leads me to believe most desktops can't do the crunching at this point to easily run a national driving-time calculation quickly.  Fascinating (and probably more useful) study, but much more data-intensive than a simple proximity game.

[roadman65]

I used to like when the St. Louis Cardinals were in the National League East while Cincinnati Reds were in the National League West. 

As we know that Cincy is well east of St.Louie in geographics, but MLB did not see it that way until the Central Division was invented after Miami and Colorado got into the NL and so did Tampa Bay and Arizona for the AL which caused the divisions to be rearranged.

[The Nature Boy]

The Atlanta Braves were in the NL West for a while as well.

[DandyDan]

I used to like when the St. Louis Cardinals were in the National League East while Cincinnati Reds were in the National League West. 

As we know that Cincy is well east of St.Louie in geographics, but MLB did not see it that way until the Central Division was invented after Miami and Colorado got into the NL and so did Tampa Bay and Arizona for the AL which caused the divisions to be rearranged.

Chicago Cubs were also in the East division despite being farther west than Cincinnati and Atlanta.  I thought this was because then-Cubs owner Phillip Wrigley had a lot of pull in the NL office and demanded that Chicago be in the same division as New York and got the St. Louis ownership to go along.  Then the 1993 expansion came along and they were going to finally have it all make geographical sense, but then the Chicago Tribune (which then owned the Cubs) didn't want it because that meant fewer people could watch games on WGN, or some such nonsense.  It didn't matter in the end, because 1994 became the first 3 division year.

[Big John]

Prior to 2002, the Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints were in the NFC West.

[jp the roadgeek]

And to this day, the Cowboys are in the NFC East despite Dallas being the 4th farthest west city in the NFC.  And the Rams are in the NFC West despite  St. Louis being east of an NFC East city and on the same longitude as an NFC South city.

[jeffandnicole]

And to this day, the Cowboys are in the NFC East despite Dallas being the 4th farthest west city in the NFC.  And the Rams are in the NFC West despite  St. Louis being east of an NFC East city and on the same longitude as an NFC South city.

As far as they Cowboys go, it was a collective agreement that they remain in the NFC East at least in part due to the strong rivalries that exist between them and the Giants, Redskins & Eagles.

[The Nature Boy]

What was the reasoning behind the Braves being in the NL West? Was it a holdover from when they were in Milwaukee?

[NWI_Irish96]

What was the reasoning behind the Braves being in the NL West? Was it a holdover from when they were in Milwaukee?

No, when the NL split into divisions in 1969, the Braves were already in Atlanta.  The six farthest west teams were LA, SD, SF, HOU, STL, and CHC.  With the unbalanced schedule, teams played 90 games vs their own division and 72 games vs the other division.  The Cubs and Cardinals did not want extra games in the Pacific Time Zone, so the pulled rank, so to speak, and got themselves put in the East, with CIN and ATL being the next two most western teams getting shipped to the West.

In the American League, the Washington Senators moved to Texas between the 1971-72 seasons and switched from East to West.  I have no idea why Milwaukee was switched from West to East instead of the White Sox. 

[roadman65]

Milwaukee now is in the NL is it not?  When the four expansion teams changed the divisions in the 90's, did they move the Brewers across the league boundary to balance it out?