Category: Longitude
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Latitude Longitude Sequences
I was looking for geo-oddities — so many of my articles start off that same way — when I spotted something unusual. This was just prior to my recent trip to Washington and Oregon while I was working on my travel agenda. I’d been contemplating the addition of a quick loop to Newport on the…
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Longest Natural Straight Line
I once featured a stretch of completely straight railroad track across the Nullarbor Plain. It ran an amazing 478 kilometres (297 miles), in Australia’s Longest Straight Line. I’ve also focused considerable attention on the Canada-United States border. That one hugs the 49th degree of latitude north for something like 2,000 km (1,250 mi) — although…
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All Ways South
I noticed a claim on the Intertubes, primarily because someone using a search engine landed on Twelve Mile Circle seeking more information. It asserted that one can travel due south from Missouri to enter each state that borders it. That doesn’t seem logical so that’s why the claim attracts attention. Missouri and Tennessee are the…
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But What’s the Meridian?
The definition of “meridian” sounds straight-forward enough. There are some ancillary definitions relating to greatest moments, highest achievements and such, plus one dealing with acupuncture. However, the one roughly analogous to longitude interests 12MC the most. From Dictionary.com: me·rid·i·an…(1.) Geography. (a.) a great circle of the earth passing through the poles and any given point…
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State Centers of Population
The concept of population centers fascinates me. In the United States the U.S. Census bureau defines the Mean Center of Population. “The point at which an imaginary, flat, weightless, and rigid map of the United States would balance perfectly if weights of identical value were placed on it so that each weight represented the location…
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You’re Invited – 12MC Happy Hour
Finally, at long last, I get to announce definitive plans for a Twelve Mile Circle Happy Hour on the American Meridian Line, in the Washington, DC area. This has been a long time coming. We couldn’t meet just anywhere. It had to involve a genuine geo-oddity of sufficient stature befitting this group. Venue became critically…
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Time Zone Limits, Part 2
I went through a bit of an exercise to uncover the extreme eastern and western longitudes for each of the time zones in the Lower-48 United States, in Part 1. These points looked rather striking when I placed them in a map. Now, let’s look a little closer at the eight points individually. I consider…
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Time Zone Limits, Part 1
I’ve noted my appreciation for random visitors on many occasions. They serve as an amazing source of accidental topics. This time an anonymous lurker wished to find the easternmost extreme of the U.S. Central Time Zone. Why stop there, I figured? What are the extreme longitudes for each of the time zones in the Lower-48…
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Better Sister Cities
Sister Cities International’s mission promotes “peace through mutual respect, understanding, & cooperation — one individual, one community at a time.” I find that laudable although I wonder how they establish these relationships. Does it involve some sort of affinity perspective or does someone simply say, “hey, wanna be our sister city?” My hometown — Arlington,…
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Tragically Hundred
Right before reader Brent traveled through Manitoba and recorded his visit to the Dominion Land Survey’s Prime Meridian, he and I were discussing the 100th Meridian west of Greenwich. He shared this 1992 video from The Tragically Hip, “At The Hundredth Meridian“ Go ahead and turn it up if you like. It will be good…