{"id":10993,"date":"2012-06-12T17:58:14","date_gmt":"2012-06-12T22:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=10993"},"modified":"2021-11-15T07:37:28","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T12:37:28","slug":"all-cardinal-directions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/all-cardinal-directions\/","title":{"rendered":"All Ways – Every Cardinal Direction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I put a little throwaway comment at the tail-end of my recent All Ways South<\/a> article. There I demonstrated that someone could travel due south from Missouri into each of its eight neighboring states from at least one point along their shared borders. As I thought about it I noted, “Come to think of it, I imagine one could pick just about any state and any cardinal direction and replicate this feat thanks to small surveying errors and corrections<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was speculation based upon an educated guess. I never made an attempt to prove it. One reader, “Darien Gap” (which I’m guessing<\/a> is a pseudonym), undertook that challenge for his home state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“\u2026 After some cursory examination in Google maps, I believe that it is possible to travel to all of my home state\u2019s (West Virginia) neighbors by traveling in each cardinal direction. In other words, ALL FOUR directions work. I thought it would be hard to travel West into Pennsylvania from WV, but it appears there may be a few perturbations in the Mason-Dixon line SW of Mount Morris, PA.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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My Attempt<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

That provided me with the impetus to get off my lazy tail and see if I could do the same thing with my home base, the Commonwealth of Virginia, which has five adjacent neighbors: Maryland; North Carolina; Tennessee; Kentucky and West Virginia. I\u2019ll also add the District of Columbia to the pile even though it\u2019s not a state just to make things more interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rosslyn,<\/a>
A view into Virginia from Roosevelt Island in the District of Columbia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s start with a presumption. Nature doesn\u2019t tend to create completely straight lines across the landscape for long distances. I\u2019m sure there are some exceptions \u2013 hmm… perhaps a good topic<\/a> for a future article — although for the sake of this exercise let\u2019s presuppose that a border running along a river or a mountain ridge for hundreds of miles will have some directional kinks within it. The Potomac River defines Virginia\u2019s boundary with Maryland, and various portions of the Appalachian Mountains do the same for much of the boundaries with West Virginia and Kentucky. Thus, I won\u2019t bother to look at them any further. I can always go to the map and find plenty of examples if people need evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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District of Columbia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So I\u2019m going to violate my own rule right off the bat. The Potomac River also defines a border between Virginia and the District of Columbia. However, it\u2019s not a very long border and I believe it requires a little extra scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n