Noticeable (Non-Freeway) Differences When You Cross The State Line...

[thenetwork]

I thought of this one the other day at the UT/CO border of I-70:

*NOT* including major river crossings or changes in the aesthetics or characteristics of the freeway/highway, what immediate changes can be seen when crossing over state lines on certain highways?  In other words, if there were no signs indicating the state line, would there be enough evidence otherwise to hint that you crossed over into another state?

I-75 Ohio to Michigan:  Toledo and it's built up community of houses ends on the state line.  Once you cross into Michigan, it's immediately all farmland and marshland along the Lake Erie shoreline area.

I-70 Colorado to Utah:  In Colorado, it's all rocks and hills in close proximity to the highway. As soon as you cross into Utah, the land opens up to high-desert flatlands and there is hardly any hills or other obstructions to block your view of the Beehive State.

Most Interstate borders with Nevada:  Casinos and civilization in Nevada, while across the state line, the greenery rapidly changes to desert!

Other noticeable differences at state lines?

[Pete from Boston]

On the VT-QC line it always astounds me how quick the transition is from rugged, Appalachian Vermont to flat Québec farmland.  Vermont feels very defensible at this point, should there ever emerge another border skirmish.

[corco]

I always noticed that in Wyoming, which is odd given that all of its boundaries are arbitrary-

US 287 south towards Fort Collins is just high desert and as soon as you enter Colorado you're in trees.
I-80 east towards Kimball is the same way- it's nothing, and then as soon as you cross into Nebraska you're in bluff country.
US 85 north towards Lead, you're in high plains with mountains nearby, and then as soon as you enter South Dakota you're actually in the hills.
US 30 west towards Montpelier- you're out in Wyoming's Star Valley, and then as soon as you enter Idaho the road starts climbing.

[Scott5114]

The Oklahoma—Missouri border kind of meets this category. When you cross the Spring River (still about 10 miles inside of Oklahoma), the terrain gets noticeably hillier and rockier, like the Ozarks of southwestern Missouri.

Texas tends to feel a lot flatter and sparser when you cross the line from Oklahoma, as well.

[hotdogPi]

MA/NH 125: The restaurants are all on the Massachusetts side, and the other stores are all on the New Hampshire side.

[AsphaltPlanet]

When you cross into Quebec from Ontario, all of a sudden everybody speaks French, it's bizarre. 

[sammi]

When you cross into Quebec from Ontario, all of a sudden everybody speaks French, it's bizarre. 

And if they speak English at all, it's with a thick accent.

I don't really know of any examples in the US or Canada, so more international content!
https://www.google.com/maps/@16.2365352,120.5130268,10z

Near the center of the map (near Rosario) is a highway boundary between La Union and Benguet. La Union is on the left, the generally flat area, and Benguet on the right has more mountainous terrain. Going east, first you have generally flat land, you might notice it rising a little, then once you cross the boundary you're on the side of a mountain. It actually surprised me the last time I was there, because it's something I don't usually notice.

La Union side:


Benguet side:

[bzakharin]

Not quite the same thing, but when you enter the city of Baltimore via surface street, you see a marked decrease in the quality of the pavement (and since there are very few welcome signs, that is often the only way you know you entered Baltimore).

[Brandon]

How about municipal lines?

You can always tell when you enter the city of Chicago by surface streets due to the differences in lampposts and traffic lights.

Examples:

Looking away from Chicago: Lake @ Austin, west
Looking toward Chicago: Lake @ Austin, east

[GaryV]

Well it's not a state line (that's back a few miles), but you sure can tell when you pass from Smoky Mt Nat Park into Gatlinburg.  Ugg.

[ET21]

Gas prices 

Ex: Illinois vs Iowa, a 40-60 cents difference
I'm sure all the bordering states have lower prices than Illinois due to the taxes, but Iowa always seems to be the most dramatic

[SD Mapman]

US 85 north towards Lead, you're in high plains with mountains nearby, and then as soon as you enter South Dakota you're actually in the hills.

I live close to the WY/SD border, and whenever I go across it, even though the landscape is remarkably similar, it just FEELS different.

Another landscape one is the transition from ranchland to farmland at the ND border on US 85.

Other than that, I can't really think of things that change at my local borders, except for that Wyoming uses Clearview and we don't.

[SidS1045]

MA/NH 125: The restaurants are all on the Massachusetts side, and the other stores are all on the New Hampshire side.

I'll go ya one better:  the Pheasant Lane Mall, on US-3.  The parking lot is in Massachusetts (6.25% sales tax) and the stores are all in New Hampshire (no sales tax).

[Duke87]

It has struck me how some (but not all) borders out west are... extremely non border-ly. I am, in the northeast, used to crossing a state line feeling like you have indeed crossed a meaningful line. Either because the towns on either side of the line are very different in appearance, because the border is located at a river or ridge... or, at the very least, the location of the border is among hills and trees so you can still mentally pretend some thing which arbitrarily happens to be at the line is what marks it.

But then, cross from Kansas in to Colorado on I-70... or worse, from Nevada into California on I-15... and it's just weird how if it weren't for the sign there isn't even any natural landmark you could remember as the location of the line. The border just cuts invisibly through wide open space without anything to mentally anchor it down, utterly untraceable without survey equipment and a knowledge of how it is defined.

It's pretty freaky looking off to your right and left, being able to see for miles without obstruction, knowing that the border goes straight off to the horizon through there somewhere but not being able to tell exactly where. I instinctively feel like, shouldn't there be a fence, a wall, a dotted line painted on the ground... something to visibly mark where the border is?

[Brian556]

When you cross from Louisiana into Texas, the percentage of pickups on the road more than doubles.

[-NCX75-]

When you cross from Louisiana into Texas, the percentage of pickups on the road more than doubles.

Ha, never really noticed that!  I was going to say that on it feels like immediately crossing into NM from TX on I-40, the land gets more interesting in terms of elevation. What I mean by that is that in Texas it's flat prairie for miles around, but -BAM- Right as you enter New Mexico, you see hills and plateaus in the distance.

[SD Mapman]

It's pretty freaky looking off to your right and left, being able to see for miles without obstruction, knowing that the border goes straight off to the horizon through there somewhere but not being able to tell exactly where. I instinctively feel like, shouldn't there be a fence, a wall, a dotted line painted on the ground... something to visibly mark where the border is?

A lot of the time there's a fence, as ranches do not normally cross state lines.

[Pete from Boston]

Gas prices 

Ex: Illinois vs Iowa, a 40-60 cents difference
I'm sure all the bordering states have lower prices than Illinois due to the taxes, but Iowa always seems to be the most dramatic

Roads into New Jersey from New York are littered with gasoline alleys, much as roads into New Hampshire from Massachusetts usually have a liquor store very close in. 

[jakeroot]

Gas prices 

Ex: Illinois vs Iowa, a 40-60 cents difference
I'm sure all the bordering states have lower prices than Illinois due to the taxes, but Iowa always seems to be the most dramatic

Roads into New Jersey from New York are littered with gasoline alleys, much as roads into New Hampshire from Massachusetts usually have a liquor store very close in.

The Bellingham Costco just south of the WA/BC border is regularly filled to the brim with Canadians searching for the best bang for their buck.

As for my own shocking border crossing, probably my first time crossing into BC from Washington. I was appalled by how horribly they treated our beloved I-5...having it just end in some southern Vancouver suburb.

[J N Winkler]

But then, cross from Kansas in to Colorado on I-70... or worse, from Nevada into California on I-15... and it's just weird how if it weren't for the sign there isn't even any natural landmark you could remember as the location of the line. The border just cuts invisibly through wide open space without anything to mentally anchor it down, utterly untraceable without survey equipment and a knowledge of how it is defined.

Boundaries out west are indeed rarely defined by sharp changes in landscape, but in addition to the features others have already pointed out, such as fences, there is typically also border monumentation that can be seen if you stop.  There is a survey marker (needle inside a hole) at the Kansas-Colorado border on US 50.  Further south on the same border, there are two concrete railroad monuments (painted white and stencilled "Kansas" and "Colorado" on the appropriate sides) at US 160, where a railroad crossing straddles the border.

At border crossings where both states have been surveyed using the PLSS grid, state highways crossing the border invariably have "grid snap" sections (usually a S-curve) since in each state they tend to be located on top of (or at a fixed lateral offset from) section lines, which usually do not line up across borders.  At rural crossings you can usually tell the border is approaching when you see the sign forest for traffic coming in the other direction (Welcome, please wear your seatbelt, don't litter, call such and such a number for telecopier permits, we enforce brand inspection laws, saddle mounts must stop at the port of entry, etc.).

[SteveG1988]

Going from NJ to PA on any major road you notice the bridges on the PA side have large billboards facing westbound traffic. I think there is a law against these in new jersey.

Also when crossing into PA from any truss bridge in trenton, one of the first things you see are tobacconists, due to the lower taxes on the product in PA.

[jeffandnicole]

Going from NJ to PA on any major road you notice the bridges on the PA side have large billboards facing westbound traffic. I think there is a law against these in new jersey.

Home rule.  For whatever reason, some towns in NJ don't permit these large billboards at the bridges.

The town one is in at the NJ base of the Delaware Memorial Bridge into NJ *does* allow these billboards, and there are 3 or 4 of them to great you as you enter/leave NJ.

[Thing 342]

On I-95, when you cross from NC to SC, the surroundings become much swampier, and the vegetation much closer to the road. You also see the glut of Fireworks stands...

[DandyDan]

Every crossing into Missouri I've encountered will inevitably have a fireworks stand, sometimes right at the border.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

When you cross into Quebec from Ontario, all of a sudden everybody speaks French, it's bizarre. 

Also when you cross from Spain into France . And all the liquor and tobacco stores are in the Spanish side of the border (lower taxes than in France).