- 3,655
- Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA
A topic that's always fascinated me. What are some of the oddities of geography in your country? By "oddities in geography", I am referring to geographic facts that seem odd, surprising, unexpected, or just plain interesting.
Here are some in the USA.
Here are some in the USA.
- Buffalo, NY is closer to Ft. Wayne, Indiana than it its to NYC.
- West Virginia, despite being a "southern" state's northern panhandle extends as far north as New York City and almost as far north as the south tip of Connecticut.
- Cairo, Illinois, is closer to Jackson, Mississippi and Birmingham, Alabama than it is to Chicago.
- It takes almost ten hours to drive across North Carolina from east to west (542 miles).
- There is a small peninsula in Kentucky that is completely separate from the rest of Kentucky due to the elevation changes of the Mississippi river, with a population of a few hundred, and is only accessible by driving through Tennessee first.
- The southern part of Missouri is as far south as Raleigh, NC, Nashville, TN, and Amarillo, TX.
- El Paso, TX, is closer to the Pacific Ocean and San Diego, CA than it is to Houston.
- Houston, TX, is closer to Tallahassee, FL, than it is to El Paso.
- The highest point in South Carolina, despite it being a "flat" state is higher than any mountain in Pennsylvania.
- The western point of Virginia is farther west than the western point of West Virginia.
- Reno, Nevada, despite being hundreds of miles inland, is farther west than Los Angeles.
- You can drive through four states going south (Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia) all in a span of 30 minutes.
- You can drive from Benton, Missouri, to northeastern Louisiana, without any change in elevation.
- The north point of Texas (Dalhart) is closer to North Dakota than it is to Brownsville, TX.
- The south point of Ontario is farther south than the northernmost point of California.
- You must drive through Canada first in order to reach Northern Angle, Minnesota.
- Alaska is the easternmost state in the US, not Maine.
- The south point of NJ (Cape May Point) is farther south than Arlington, VA.
- Russia is only two miles away from Alaska's westernmost point.
- The entire state of Florida is farther south than California's southernmost point.
- You must drive south from Detroit to enter Canada, not north.
- The Mississippi River Watershed extends as war north and west as Alberta, as far southwest as New Mexico, and as far east as upstate NY.
- Loving County, TX, is home to only 80 people. Yet Loving County is larger than most of the NYC metropolitan area, encompassing roughly 12 million people.
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