This is true? - Geographic oddities that defy conventional wisdom

[bm7]

Straight west from Phoenix, the California coast is 314 miles away. Go straight south instead, and the coast of the Gulf of California is very slightly closer at 312 miles.

[Rothman]

Straight west from Phoenix, the California coast is 314 miles away. Go straight south instead, and the coast of the Gulf of California is very slightly closer at 312 miles.

I like that one.

[andrepoiy]

...
I looked at GoogleMaps and realized that what I wrote was not as clear cut as I thought, so I deleted it. My thinking was that the Canadian expressway that I-87 becomes goes due north, but when I looked at a map, the expressway actually bends a bit to the west, so the whole city of Montreal is more west than I thought.

Anything west of A-30 (which I would consider pretty much all of the Montréal area to be; Montréal itself doesn't extend to the mainland) is west of VT.  The key thing is that Canada (southern Ontario aside) doesn't tend to sprawl as much as the US, so those smaller nearby communities that would just have been subsumed into the bigger metro area in the US (or near Toronto) are still distinct places.

Definitely a fair point, but I would include Toronto in the category of not sprawling as much as the US. It's so huge that it can feel sprawling, but on a block level the suburban areas are still way more compact than US suburbs. Even the outlying suburbs such as Milton, Vaughan and Richmond Hill have new homes built on small properties with hardly any yard to speak of, and the transition from those areas to rural ones is very abrupt (in no small part due to the Greenbelt). I'd even go so far as to say "exurban" areas don't really exist, and to the extent they do, they're very limited and usually fall closer to either suburban or rural.

Canadians in general seem to be impressed by how sprawling suburbs in the US are, and vice versa. To us, a house on an acre property is pretty typical for an outlying suburb, but to them, that's a massive property that would be almost impossible to find for a single-family home.

I would say that GTA single-family detached homes actually resemble a lot of Los Angeles area' single-family detached homes - very little lawn/backyard, smaller lots, little space between houses

[Road Hog]

...
I looked at GoogleMaps and realized that what I wrote was not as clear cut as I thought, so I deleted it. My thinking was that the Canadian expressway that I-87 becomes goes due north, but when I looked at a map, the expressway actually bends a bit to the west, so the whole city of Montreal is more west than I thought.

Anything west of A-30 (which I would consider pretty much all of the Montréal area to be; Montréal itself doesn't extend to the mainland) is west of VT.  The key thing is that Canada (southern Ontario aside) doesn't tend to sprawl as much as the US, so those smaller nearby communities that would just have been subsumed into the bigger metro area in the US (or near Toronto) are still distinct places.

Definitely a fair point, but I would include Toronto in the category of not sprawling as much as the US. It's so huge that it can feel sprawling, but on a block level the suburban areas are still way more compact than US suburbs. Even the outlying suburbs such as Milton, Vaughan and Richmond Hill have new homes built on small properties with hardly any yard to speak of, and the transition from those areas to rural ones is very abrupt (in no small part due to the Greenbelt). I'd even go so far as to say "exurban" areas don't really exist, and to the extent they do, they're very limited and usually fall closer to either suburban or rural.

Canadians in general seem to be impressed by how sprawling suburbs in the US are, and vice versa. To us, a house on an acre property is pretty typical for an outlying suburb, but to them, that's a massive property that would be almost impossible to find for a single-family home.

I would say that GTA single-family detached homes actually resemble a lot of Los Angeles area' single-family detached homes - very little lawn/backyard, smaller lots, little space between houses

Newer builds in DFW are like that. It's all about maximizing rooftops for developers. I have a quarter-acre lot on an older build (2003). Big enough to put in a regulation batting cage in the back.

[Rothman]

The large size of Louisiana throws me off.  Even when I intellectually know how it's as wide as upstate NY and a bigger state than Ohio geographically, it is still stuck in my mind that it's that dinky little state between Mississippi and Texas.

[jlam]

The large size of Louisiana throws me off.  Even when I intellectually know how it's as wide as upstate NY and a bigger state than Ohio geographically, it is still stuck in my mind that it's that dinky little state between Mississippi and Texas.

Same here. Texas seems to make it seem tiny by comparison. Louisiana is almost as large as Mississippi (larger if you count its water area).

[JayhawkCO]

Agreed. When we were doing the longest interstate segments in two adjacent states thread, in no way did I think I-10 ran longer through Louisiana than New Mexico, and certainly not by 100 miles. (Part of that is me forgetting that El Paso is almost at the centerpoint of New Mexico from an East/West perspective.)

[MikieTimT]

The large size of Louisiana throws me off.  Even when I intellectually know how it's as wide as upstate NY and a bigger state than Ohio geographically, it is still stuck in my mind that it's that dinky little state between Mississippi and Texas.

Same here. Texas seems to make it seem tiny by comparison. Louisiana is almost as large as Mississippi (larger if you count its water area).

Probably it's because it's only a little over a 150 miles across at its narrowest width between I-10 and I-20.  It's almost 300 miles across from the "heel" to the "toe" of the "boot" along the coastline.

What makes it seem smaller is there is much less habitable area than most states due to the sheer swampiness of the majority of the southern portion except for the ribbons along US-90 and I-10.

[webny99]

I wonder how much of it is due to the northern half being narrower. Seems to me like if it was flipped, it would seem a lot bigger.

[jlam]

Part of it might also be the north-south narrowness near New Orleans. Going north on I-55, you're almost immediately in Mississippi.

[Rothman]

Agreed. When we were doing the longest interstate segments in two adjacent states thread, in no way did I think I-10 ran longer through Louisiana than New Mexico, and certainly not by 100 miles. (Part of that is me forgetting that El Paso is almost at the centerpoint of New Mexico from an East/West perspective.)

^Good point.

[Rothman]

Part of it might also be the north-south narrowness near New Orleans. Going north on I-55, you're almost immediately in Mississippi.

Not really.  You'd be surprised how far it is between I-10 and the MS border.

[webny99]

Part of it might also be the north-south narrowness near New Orleans. Going north on I-55, you're almost immediately in Mississippi.

Not really.  You'd be surprised how far it is between I-10 and the MS border.

Partly because I-10 dips south through NOLA. 66 miles from LaPlace to the MS line is actually more than I thought, but I-12 is almost halfway there.

[kphoger]

(Part of that is me forgetting that El Paso is almost at the centerpoint of New Mexico from an East/West perspective.)

Oh, wow.  Yeah, I keep forgetting that too.  It sure seems like El Paso and Carlsbad should be closer together...

[tmoore952]

I remember driving to the New Mexico line on I-10 from downtown Phoenix, and realizing that if I drove that same distance further east on I-10 I would have been 80-90 miles east of El Paso.

[CoreySamson]

What really throws me off is that Arkansas is bigger in area than Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi (but not combined of course!). It's a little bigger than what it seems on a map.

[Poiponen13]

As you may have already known, Helsinki has more people than the country of Iceland. And Greenland is farther noth, south, east and west than Iceland.

[vdeane]

As you may have already known, Helsinki has more people than the country of Iceland.

We have another thread for that.

[bwana39]

The large size of Louisiana throws me off.  Even when I intellectually know how it's as wide as upstate NY and a bigger state than Ohio geographically, it is still stuck in my mind that it's that dinky little state between Mississippi and Texas.

California is not all that wide either....
At its Narrowest EW point Louisiana  is around 110 nautical miles across it, but via roads, I-20 is around 180 miles.
In California, it is closer to 150 nautical miles at its narrowest, BUT I-8 from Yuma To San Diego is around 5 miles less than Louisiana's shortest road route.

[JayhawkCO]

Melbourne, Australia is closer to Antarctica than it is to Darwin.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

While asking Google Maps for directions I discovered I'm closer to Italy than to the other end of Spain.

Straight west from Phoenix, the California coast is 314 miles away. Go straight south instead, and the coast of the Gulf of California is very slightly closer at 312 miles.

It's less than 40 miles from the Arizona state line to the closest coastline.

[Poiponen13]

Virginia reaches further west than West Virginia. Lithuania reaches further south than Denmark. Lithuania also reaches further north than Belarus. Kazakhstan reaches further north than Germany.

[GaryV]

Virginia reaches further west than West Virginia.

Common knowledge

Lithuania reaches further south than Denmark. Lithuania also reaches further north than Belarus.

Not that all surprising

Kazakhstan reaches further north than Germany.

OK, that one's a bit unexpected.

Not bad, hitting 1 for 4. .250 is a respectable batting average.

[Scott5114]

Virginia reaches further west than West Virginia.

Common knowledge

I sort of thought they were about the same, but it doesn't really surprise me much to find out that the far western tip of VA extends past the western tip of WV. The state lines in that area are sort of weird.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Literally on the first page of this thread :

Edit to add that Virginia actually reaches farther West than West Virginia.