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Newfoundland should be an island of oddities, from its proximity to France (i.e. St Pierre et Miquelon), to its time zone, to yielding its once independent status first to Britain then to Canada.
Despite their appearance, Colorado and Wyoming are not perfectly rectangular. They are technically closer to polygon in shape.
To begin with, Wyoming's east-west border is 365 miles on the south, but only 342 miles on the north. Similarly, Colorado's northern border is 21 miles shorter than its southern border. This is, of course, due to the natural curvature of the earth.
But curvature aside, the states of Colorado and Wyoming are still not perfect rectangles. These two states actually have small jogs in their otherwise straight-line borders. These border kinks resulted from surveyors' errors long ago. The imperfections can easily seen on Google Maps. Simply zoom in on the Four Corners region of UT/AZ/CO/NM, and you can see that the border shared by Utah and Colorado contains an obvious jog. Another kink in the border between those states can be seen further north, near Bedrock, CO. And Wyoming has a jog in its western border with Idaho.
I discovered that one day on Google Maps. From what I could tell no "straight" border for any state is actually straight. They all zig and zag a little.
I discovered that one day on Google Maps. From what I could tell no "straight" border for any state is actually straight. They all zig and zag a little.
I've heard that there is a strip along the Colorado-Wyoming line that is not in either state, due to surveyors errors. But I can't verify that and it might just be local lore.
By settled law, once a border is defined on the ground and accepted by the interested parties, it becomes official, even if it doesn't follow the written description. Otherwise, there would be borders changing all the time according to the technology of astronomical measurement and surveying exactness. Furthermore, the exact location of the poles changes slightly over eons of time, and the polar positions define the alignment of meridians and parallels, which would shift along with the poles.
Owing to the Chandler Wobble of the earth's axis, the parallel of latitude that defines the WY/CO border (and the US/Canada border, and the equator) drifts north and south by several meters about every 435 days. The magnitude of the wobble fluctuates, but is enough to be relevant to meter-scale GPS precision.
By the way, there are only three states whose borders are entirely defined by survey lines and not by natural features. Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. Montana has no borders defined by waterways, but its Idaho border is defined by mountain ridge. New Mexico has 16 miles of Texas border defined by the Rio Grande, but it is almost all on dry land now, due to rechanneling of the river.
At LF Wade International Airport in Bermuda, the main runway runs parallel to the ocean, separated by less than 200 feet. This air strip is also flanked by the ocean on both ends. Talk about your tricky landings!
In Canada, 90% of the population lives within 100 miles of the border with the lower 48 US states. This narrow strip represents only about 10% of Canada's total area.
San Bernardino County, California is so large...
1. It's bigger than each of nine US states, including Maryland.
2. The five boroughs of New York City would fit into San Bernadino County almost 43 times.
3. It's larger than many entire nations, such as the Dominican Republic, Haiti, or Costa Rica.
4. It's bigger than RI, DE, CT and HI combined.
5. About a dozen Great Salt Lakes would fit into San Bernadino County.
The Island of Marthas Vinyard is about 15% smaller than it was in 2000!
Is it because of erosion?
Anyway, I have another one about Martha's Vineyard. Until the 1690s, the island was part of Dukes County, New York! Dukes also included Nantucket Island at the time.
Today Dukes is part of Massachusetts but his long lost Dutchess is still in New York.
Anyway, I have another one about Martha's Vineyard. Until the 1690s, the island was part of Dukes County, New York! Dukes also included Nantucket Island at the time.
Today Dukes is part of Massachusetts but his long lost Dutchess is still in New York.
No, in 2007 a storm split a barrier beach spilting and Island off from the main Island.
Florida is the only state that has a tall building higher than the natural highest point in the state. Kansas has a big grain elevator on ground that is about 200 feet short of Mount Sunflower, but I can't find out how high the elevator is. A few states have residential neighborhoods at their highest point, where some ordinary nearby houses are higher than the high point.
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