I love this oddities series! As a Brit, not only is it super interesting to me, but also reminds me just how massive the US is, and how diverse its geography is. Being smaller in size than a lot of individual states, the UK just doesn't have that kind of variation in geography and landscape.
@Jay Bear Alternately, I’m amazed at how small the UK is when studying its history. How can there be such cultural and linguistic variation over an area that’s roughly the size of the 6 New England states (which are only a small area tucked in the northeast part of the USA)?
@@chasbodaniels1744 Thats actually quite easy to answer. Simply the US (ignoring the natives) is only a few hundred years old and for the last couple of hundred travelling about was relatively easy. The UK has shall we say quite a bit of history and up until even recently people didn't move around much. I still know Scottish people that have never left Scotland! This meant that you could get two different accents even 20 miles apart
@@jimh3588 I've been to New York, but that's it. My wife and I would really love to do a driving holiday or two to see the real America, but sadly that'll have to wait until the kids are grown up...
Virginian here: Arlington County is a giant city. It's super dense and mostly gridded. Meanwhile, Suffolk (a "city" in Hampton Roads) is the size of a large county but is mostly exurban or fully rural. Our state makes no sense
Yeah I know, I was stuck there many years in the Navy. :-) I did return there not too long ago to see how much had changed in 20 years. Hampton Roads traffic is even worse now. It's a pain just getting into Newport News.
Arlington is a County (not an Independent City) in the Commonwealth. It was originally a part of Fairfax County that was ceded to the Federal Government and called Alexandria County. Some day Arlington might like to be a city but that would require the legislature's approval. Alexandria (north of King Street) was a part of the Commonwealth that along with what is present day Arlington County became the Virgina portion of the District of Columbia. Because of the Home Rule act no government building were built south of the Potomac. Eventually the land was retroceded to the commonwealth so that Alexandria could continue to function as a slave port and trading location. When the Civil War broke out, Alexandria and eventually Alexandria County, know today as Arlington County, were quickly occupied and endured the longest occupation of any conquered territory. There are interesting studies on what Arlington and Alexandria might have been if it were not for retrocession and the general consensus is they would not be the economic powerhouses they are for the rest of the Commonwealth.
The whole city/county system here makes no sense, I lived in albemarle county which completely surrounds the city of Charlottesville and since they are 2 different entities, a snow day could cancel school in the county which is north, south, east, and west of the city of Charlottesville, but the kids inside the city of Charlottesville would have school.
In 1976, I went to the bay area to see my cousin Susan Benzler Smith get married. While my parents and I were there, my mother and I had the opportunity to ride a cable car, and it went down California Ave and through Chinatown. I thought it was so pretty there. I'm wondering how the Loma Prieta earthquake affected that area, and has it changed much. My aunt and uncle lived in South San Francisco back then in San Mateo County.
Interesting fact about Attu Island, Alaska, is that it was the site of the only land battle between the U.S. and Japan fought on U.S. soil (although Alaska was not yet a state). Kiska Island was also part of the Japanese invasion in June 1942.
Speaking of Alaskan islands, Alaska and Russia have two islands called the Diomede Islands (Big Diomede and Little Diomede) that are only 2.4 miles (3.8 km) apart. There's a 21 hour time difference between the two, which is why they have been given the nicknames of "Tomorrow Island" and "Yesterday Island".
I've been concerned about you since the deadly tornado outbreak less than two weeks ago. Hadn't seen anything from you come over until now. Glad to see you're doing well.
@@kylehandtunes I saw that after I watched the video. Too bad YT can't keep the same interface for all platforms. I don't see comments or still posts on the TV version. Only mobile or laptop/PC. Either way, I'm glad the King is OK. He actually lives further away from the path of destruction than I thought. 👍🏼😀
Thank you. Actually we didn't even know about the storm until we got back. It happened while we were in Antigua and we didn't have any of our devices on while we were there.
Toronto's Little Italy and Chinatown are also very close together. Possibly adjacent depending on where one draws the boundaries. Thanks for another interesting video. 🙂
Ottawa (Ontario), Canada is exactly the same as well (although, granted, neither our China Town, nor our Little Italy are very large) : they are absolutely adjacent and sort of merge into each other...
Jacksonville, FL is about as far west as Pittsburgh, PA despite Jacksonville being right on the Atlantic Coast and Pittsburgh being nestled in the Appalachian Plateaus
Considering that one of the requirements of an interstate is that can accommodate the movement of military vehicles, it makes perfect sense that Hawaii has some interstates considering the state's military important
@@wncjan Not to mention every city loop 3-digit "interstate" that surrounds any city not near a state border (and even some that are like I-370 near St. Louis, MO).
I have family in Hawaii, so I've driven those three interstates quite a few times. H3 is a beautiful drive, but due to the viaduct going over the hilly rainforest and through the mountains in the middle of the island, there's a very long stretch with no exits and no opportunity to turn around. This bit me in the butt during one trip when I had driven all the way to the windward side of the island, took a wrong turn, ended up back on H3 at the last entrance before the tunnel, and had to drive pretty much all the way back to Honolulu just to turn around! Speaking of Honolulu, it's one of those weird cases of a city and county being consolidated. Technically the entire island (and all but one of the outlying islands out beyond Kauai and Niihau) is part of the City and County of Honolulu, even though in practice nobody's gonna put Honolulu on an envelope or into their GPS if the destination is Mililani or Haleiwa or Kaneohe, etc. And Aiea is the only town (technically census-designated place) in the U.S. to have only vowels in its name. That's more of a language quirk than a geography quirk, but still a fun fact.
@@mistershaf9648 No, they're in miles but they just say a number (75 mostly) and no unit so easy mistake to make until you realize how slow 75 km/hr is.
@@ReverendMeat51 You’re right! I converted 75 miles per hour into km/hr and I came up with about 121 km/hr. That is a more appropriate speed limit for AZ than approximately 47 miles per hour.
@@mistershaf9648 Yep, it'd be a reasonable speed on a lot of roads here but definitely not the interstate! You should visit AZ sometime if you can btw, the Sonoran desert is beautiful :)
Back in the late 80s my buddy and I were driving in Tennessee. We saw a road sign " Metric road signs next 100 miles". I started laughing my buddy didn't get it until the next day , then he started laughing .
Love your channel! Here are some fun geography quirks/oddities about my beautiful state of Utah: The Uinta mountain range in Northeast Utah is the largest east-west mountain range in the US (and if I'm not wrong also the only east-west range in the Rockie Mountains). There are also over 1,000 lakes located in the Uintas, meaning that "the land of 1,000 lakes" can also apply to the desert state of Utah. Utah's Jordan River begins in a freshwater lake, and empties into a salt lake, just like the Jordan River on the Israel-Jordan border in the Middle East. Most of Utah also used to be a large sea, meaning you can find fossils of sea creatures over 4,000 miles from the nearest ocean. Due to algal bloom and different salinity levels, the Great Salt Lake is basically two lakes, each half a different color (one pink one blue) and you can see the two halves from space. The Great Salt Lake is also the largest lake in the US after the Great Lakes of course. Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado are the only states whose borders are defined entirely by straight lines and no natural features, and of those three states, Utah is the only one that isn't a quadrilateral. Since all its lines are straight it is technically an irregular hexagon.
Merry Christmas Kyle! To answer your question at 9:40, the city of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada has its Chinatown (97th Street) located near Little Italy (95th Street). I lived in Edmonton briefly about 20 years ago, and at the time I thought the proximity of those neighbourhoods was quite unique. Pretty cool to hear that New York and San Francisco are similar to Edmonton in that regard. Another quirk you may find interesting about the relationship between Newfoundland and St-Pierre et Miquelon, from 3:45 in the video, is the configuration of time zones in that area. The province of Newfoundland & Labrador has two time zones (UTC -04:00 and UTC -03:30), and St-Pierre et Miquelon has one time zone (UTC -03:00). So if you travel from Saint-Pierre to St. John's, you actually go back in time (zones) by travelling east. I can't think of another place in the world like that. Can you? Thanks for another great video!
I'm a land surveyor, and I just attended a seminar a couple weeks ago concerning original surveys and state borders. Long story short, GA will have an incredibly tough time adjusting its border with TN, since the courts have ruled now for over two centuries that, in general, the location of a state border is fixed by the original survey, regardless of any errors which may have occurred in that survey. Otherwise, every time a new and better piece of technology came along to measure the location of the lines, they would move, creating chaos, which the courts generally don't like
Five years or so ago, the NC - SC border was "corrected" for survey errors. Given all the disruptions, I don't understand why they didn't let that sleeping dog lie.
Interesting, i know a town on the Vermont/Canada border is famously litterally bisected by the international border because the original survey was half a mile off so the town was settled in the wrong spot. I believe part of the explanation for those old survey errors, in addition to using tools like 50ft chains that are obviously less accurate than GPS, is that they were paid in part with whiskey so they were drunk while doing their survey duties. Honestly only being off by half a mile when drunk in the woods with late 1700's survey tech is very impressive.
There are places in the Midwest where surveyors were paid by the government, but where they just pocketed the money and drew up fraudulent surveys. Some would show rivers or roads which never existed. I'm not saying this was a common occurrence, but it did happen.
@@hgman3920 technically google still does this but as copyright protection. Hilariously someone named a store after the "fake town" on google maps making it now a real town and google lost the copyright fight with apple maps. Other things they do is making sidewalks in parks be labeled as roads so they can catch others making the same mistakes. I also know someone got sick of exploring Africa and drew in a really big mountain ramge called the Atlas mountains basically cutting off the bottom edge of the savanna below the Sahara all the way across the continent. Apparently these fictional mountains still end up on less reputable maps even today. (I want to say he did it in the victorian era) I want to say "half as interesting" is the channel with videos on these topics. (Or one of the dudes 3 other channels)
North and South Carolina actually moved part of the state border a few years back after agreeing to jointly re-survey. There were some homes and businesses affected but I think both states went out of their way to make it easier on them.
Nice videos! I think a video on unintentional, man-made geologic formations in the US (Providence Canyon in Georgia or the sinkholes in Texas and Louisiana) would be really interesting...
Another possibility is the rural Mohawk reservation that apears to litterally stradle the US/Canada border at the litteral northern edge of NY. It apears to have several roads between the Nations without any sort of Customs barriers visible on google earth. I'm curious how that works, i know that the native tribes are technically fully sovriegn nations capable of diplomacy outside the US. I'm sure theres a long trail of legal history on this strange relationship between the USA and its native tribes that are both apart of it yet independent. (Beyond the obvious shameful treaty breaking era)
Correction for the part about Earth's moon: you'd actually need to drive across that distance 3.14159 times, as circumference is equal to pi times diameter (diameter being twice the radius)
8:12 If you look closely, Alexandria and Arlington form a perfect square with DC. They were both originally part of DC, but left in the early 1800’s and rejoined Virginia, mainly due to the issue of slavery.
maybe they should go back to DC again. Imagine the fighting over that issue, especially since there is some movement to make DC its own state, which I think would be a terrible idea.
Arlington is also the smallest self-governing county in the US, probably because it was artificially separated for the creation of DC (if you look at the border you can see how it completed the 100mi square) and returned to VA in 1847
These are my favorite videos you do. Thank you Kyle. I have one for your next one. Jefferson County, WA has two halves that are split by the Olympic mountain range, with the vast majority of people living on the eastern half. This happened when Clallam County was created out of its northwestern portion. Another Washington one, Greenwater, WA is a small area in WA that is in Pierce County but the only way to access it by road in the winter is from King County. In the summer you can get there from two other counties as well.
Since you brought up Brazil and France. Did you realize that you can cross the border between the two? Since French Guyana is part of France and not a "colony"
Not a colony? Well, it is an integral part of France, but France wasn't in South America from the beginning of time, and thus colonized the land that became French Guiana. Just because it is a part of France doesn't preclude the obviousness of it also being a colony.
@@marmac83 It's the same as with the US and Hawai. it's now an integral part of the US but historically it was its own kingdom that got colonized by the US and taken over.
Making the trip from Florence, Al to Knoxville, Tn to work several years ago. I always remember one spot. And that is the huge fireworks warehouse in the middle of the highway (I wanna say US 64) between South Pittsburgh, and Nickajack reservoir. I also loved once you hit I 24, and I 75. That ride on the interstate overlooking Chattanooga, and seeing lookout mountain is a cool site.
Big Daddy's! That is a very pretty drive. We thought about buying property over there when we moved but the commute to downtown Chattanooga from there is a bit of a pain.
@@GeographyKing For some reason I remember a huge sign that displayed "Tennessee/Alabama" fireworks. This was May-June of 2005. You may not have lived in Chattanooga at that time. I think you had stated you were living out west in California at one time.
I’ve been to Chattanooga and will remember the day for the rest of my life. The Ruby Falls excursion blew my mind, looking out and seeing all the different states from one spot was crazy, had some barbecue from a random worn out spot that made me rethink what bbq really was, and also some random dude gave me alcohol outside of a gas station. Just a fantastic all around city. Keep doing you buddy!
Love your videos. I will have to add that Albertville, Boaz and part of Guntersville are on Sand Mountain. But you nailed it about having no one singular big city… just a train of small ones. Good job!
Here's a Canadian oddity I think you'll like: On Lake Huron is Manitou Island, which is the largest "lake island" on the planet. On Manitou Island is Lake Manitou, which is the largest "lake island lake" on the planet. On Lake Manitou are numerous small islands. So it's possible to be on an island in a lake on an island in a lake
I checked in Toronto, and Chinatown and Little Italy are fairly close, not quite bordering, but like 1/2 km between the two. In Ottawa they somewhat overlap. In Edmonton, both are literally considered a single business district.
I think part of it is the fact that the immigrant communities tend to be concentrated in the CBD so there's a high likelihood of them being next to each other because of that. Don't hear of many Little Italy's located in the suburban periphery of cities
Also the fact that, for the most part their waves came at different times - many a Chinese immigrant moved into the place vacated by a second-generation Italian American.
Here are a couple about the North Star state. Eitzen, Minnesota (on the southeastern tip) is closer to the Kentucky border than it is to Hallock, Minnesota (on the northwestern tip). Luverne, Minnesota (on the southwestern tip) is closer to Devil's Tower, Wyoming than it is to Grand Portage, Minnesota (on the northeastern tip).
I had no idea that there was a section of road in the United States that only used the metric system! You are very informative! I hope that you and your family have a Blessed Christmas!
I came across this video by chance. I'm now a subscriber and I will soon be a patreon supporter. Is excellent work, informative, entertaining, Kudos to you friend.
From Ironwood, Michigan, it takes less time to drive to the state capitals of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa than it is to drive to Lansing, MI. And you can almost add Bismarck, ND to that list; it’s only 2 miles further than a drive to Lansing, MI.
This channel is freaking awesome... I'm constantly asking the question why when I notice these things driving semi trucks across the US. It's fascinating how we choose to divy up areas to live.
Great Video! I've spent some time driving around West Texas and Loving County. There is now a gas station in Mentone so they have become quite the metropolitan area now... Another fact of Loving County: 30-40% of the population is employed by the county.
Great videos. Here are two quirks: 1. East Aurora NY is 131 miles west of Aurora NY; 2. You mentioned that the only Interstate highway to dip into another state was I-24 just south of Chattanooga. There is a short (about 1 mile) stretch of I-86 that crosses into PA from NY in South Waverly PA.
You should look at the border between Maryland and Virginia on the patomac, especially on satellite view. Because the charter did not put the border right down the middle of the river, instead the whole river was given to Maryland. This creates some chunks of Maryland, similar to the Delaware situation you mentioned in your video.
As a transplanted resident of Delaware of 15 years, I never knew about Finns Point being across the river. Thanks for the tidbit and keep these great geographic oddity videos coming.
Growing up I was so interested in geography and history . Idk why but I just love learning and bro u have taught me so much I ain't know. So I give u much props and respect. Love ya videos
Loving Texas is probably named after Oliver loving of the goodnight -loving cattle trail that runs from Texas through New Mexico up to Wyoming 2:40 Chicago's Little Italy and Chinatown are less than 2 mi apart 9:00
10:05 might want to fact check that driving distance statement Driving around the moon would mean driving the circumference, which is not the same as the diameter
Was going to comment something along those lines, but Diameter of moon = Width of US Circumference of moon = pi* Diameter of moon ~= 3 * diameter of moon so 2 to 3 times the diameter.. close enough
@@swftwlly Nah, I'm pretty sure it's only the earth that's flat. We can tell every other body in the universe larger than a certain size is a sphere (or close enough). Only earth gets to be the special one defying the laws of physics! 😂
At 2:00 ...lived in Hawaii from 1997 to 2000...and I always wondered how they had Interstates...BTW...H1 is the worst to drive east in the morning...it was usually a 60 minute drive from Ewa to Hickam...
Dr. Kyle, I'm enjoying your videos as always. Your comment about West St. Paul, MN reminded me of a tiny quirk in towns on the VA-WV border. Though perhaps not worth mentioning, Bluefield, WV is actually EAST of Bluefield, VA. All best wishes!
Shout out to Alpine Texas, one of my favorite small towns to visit. (10:08) Before Alaska was admitted to the US, Alpine was the largest town, in the largest county (Brewster Co.) in the largest state at that time.
Nice piece! As a New Yorker who's spent lots of time in NJ, I appreciated the Delaware exclave part. Of course, now I must mention the 2 most obvious state exclaves right here in our city - Staten Island, and Ellis Island, both considered (at least in part) NYC land despite being NJ exclaves and having to cross NJ water to get to them.
Ottawa Canada has a Chinatown and Little Italy melding into each other as well. The intersection of Somerset and Preston is roughly the North West corner of the two.
Hey, speaking of the Tennessee/Georgia border thing, isn't it funny how I-24 goes from Tennessee into Georgia then back into Tennessee? Maybe do a video on some other scenarios like this one in the US, how a road goes from one state to another, then back into the previous state. Off the top of my mind, this happens with I-684 (NY-CT-back to NY), US 50 in Maryland and West Virginia twice, and US 395 (CA-NV back to CA). Could be really interesting!
Charlie's father coached basketball at my Jr High. He also taught a subject besides gym, as many coaches do. I had him for Geography. He was better than many coach/teachers
Chinatown and Little Italy were also directly adjacent to each other in Los Angeles. I say were because Little Italy almost completely vanished, and Chinatown moved because it was demolished when Union Station was built. Chinatown moved took over where Little Italy was.
Another interesting feature of Northern Virginia is the difference between living in Fairfax County, Fairfax City, and Fairfax (within Fairfax County). I am from Fairfax, VA, within Fairfax County, but not in Fairfax City, which is 5 minutes from my childhood house. There are many other towns in Fairfax County, like Burke, Lorton, Fairfax Station, etc., but my address was Fairfax, VA. Same thing with Falls Church City vs. Falls Church, which is not in Falls Church City, but also in Fairfax County
As a fellow Chattanoogan, I love that we were included in this video. My parents' house is right on the Georgia state line and would be one of those houses that would have to change states!
I love this oddities series! As a Brit, not only is it super interesting to me, but also reminds me just how massive the US is, and how diverse its geography is. Being smaller in size than a lot of individual states, the UK just doesn't have that kind of variation in geography and landscape.
@Jay Bear Alternately, I’m amazed at how small the UK is when studying its history.
How can there be such cultural and linguistic variation over an area that’s roughly the size of the 6 New England states (which are only a small area tucked in the northeast part of the USA)?
@@chasbodaniels1744 Thats actually quite easy to answer. Simply the US (ignoring the natives) is only a few hundred years old and for the last couple of hundred travelling about was relatively easy. The UK has shall we say quite a bit of history and up until even recently people didn't move around much. I still know Scottish people that have never left Scotland! This meant that you could get two different accents even 20 miles apart
Jay,
If you haven’t visited the U.S. you should. It is a beautiful and amazing place.
@@jimh3588 I've been to New York, but that's it. My wife and I would really love to do a driving holiday or two to see the real America, but sadly that'll have to wait until the kids are grown up...
But you generate Dudley Moore, who starred in Arthur 2 On The Rocks
Virginian here: Arlington County is a giant city. It's super dense and mostly gridded. Meanwhile, Suffolk (a "city" in Hampton Roads) is the size of a large county but is mostly exurban or fully rural. Our state makes no sense
The VA parts of the Great Dismal Swamp are located in the cities of Suffolk and Chesapeake.
@@TPTGopher Great Dismal Swamp? Now _that's_ a name...
Yeah I know, I was stuck there many years in the Navy. :-) I did return there not too long ago to see how much had changed in 20 years. Hampton Roads traffic is even worse now. It's a pain just getting into Newport News.
Arlington is a County (not an Independent City) in the Commonwealth. It was originally a part of Fairfax County that was ceded to the Federal Government and called Alexandria County. Some day Arlington might like to be a city but that would require the legislature's approval. Alexandria (north of King Street) was a part of the Commonwealth that along with what is present day Arlington County became the Virgina portion of the District of Columbia. Because of the Home Rule act no government building were built south of the Potomac. Eventually the land was retroceded to the commonwealth so that Alexandria could continue to function as a slave port and trading location. When the Civil War broke out, Alexandria and eventually Alexandria County, know today as Arlington County, were quickly occupied and endured the longest occupation of any conquered territory. There are interesting studies on what Arlington and Alexandria might have been if it were not for retrocession and the general consensus is they would not be the economic powerhouses they are for the rest of the Commonwealth.
The whole city/county system here makes no sense, I lived in albemarle county which completely surrounds the city of Charlottesville and since they are 2 different entities, a snow day could cancel school in the county which is north, south, east, and west of the city of Charlottesville, but the kids inside the city of Charlottesville would have school.
I’m from SF and my family had a saying “it took Marco Polo four years to go from Italy to China, today in SF you just have to cross Columbus Avenue”
Chinatown and Little Italy in Chicago are next to each other too.
Thats perfect!😂😂😂
In 1976, I went to the bay area to see my cousin Susan Benzler Smith get married. While my parents and I were there, my mother and I had the opportunity to ride a cable car, and it went down California Ave and through Chinatown. I thought it was so pretty there. I'm wondering how the Loma Prieta earthquake affected that area, and has it changed much. My aunt and uncle lived in South San Francisco back then in San Mateo County.
Interesting fact about Attu Island, Alaska, is that it was the site of the only land battle between the U.S. and Japan fought on U.S. soil (although Alaska was not yet a state). Kiska Island was also part of the Japanese invasion in June 1942.
If you're counting a battle in the Alaskan Territory, then the land battles on the Philippines should also count.
Actually that’s false, it was Lemur Jackson Island where that happened. Get yo facts straight bozo.
@@LemurJackson calm down
@@LemurJackson cringe joke
Speaking of Alaskan islands, Alaska and Russia have two islands called the Diomede Islands (Big Diomede and Little Diomede) that are only 2.4 miles (3.8 km) apart. There's a 21 hour time difference between the two, which is why they have been given the nicknames of "Tomorrow Island" and "Yesterday Island".
I've been concerned about you since the deadly tornado outbreak less than two weeks ago. Hadn't seen anything from you come over until now. Glad to see you're doing well.
King was on vacation
@@kylehandtunes I saw that after I watched the video. Too bad YT can't keep the same interface for all platforms. I don't see comments or still posts on the TV version. Only mobile or laptop/PC. Either way, I'm glad the King is OK. He actually lives further away from the path of destruction than I thought. 👍🏼😀
Thank you. Actually we didn't even know about the storm until we got back. It happened while we were in Antigua and we didn't have any of our devices on while we were there.
There was a tornado in Knoxville???
@@BrandonDrew87 Kyle says he's in Chattanooga, which didn't get hit, but wasn't far from where it did.
Toronto's Little Italy and Chinatown are also very close together. Possibly adjacent depending on where one draws the boundaries.
Thanks for another interesting video. 🙂
@Dustin Walls The proximities are not a coincidence: Chinese immigrants moved in to the places which children of Italian immigrants moved out of.
Little Italy Chicago and Chinatown Chicago are close to each other, but not connected like in NYC.
Vancouver also.
Ottawa (Ontario), Canada is exactly the same as well (although, granted, neither our China Town, nor our Little Italy are very large) : they are absolutely adjacent and sort of merge into each other...
Which Little Italy are you referring to? There are two in Toronto
Love these!!! Also love the Doug Demuro reference when he says “quirks and features” 😂
Yes. THIS is Geography King, and today we're going to look at the QUIRKS and FEATURES of this 2021 America
@@FrenchArrogance I was half expecting him to give Alaska a Doug Score lol
@@FrenchArrogance I was half expecting him to give Alaska a Doug Score lol
Jacksonville, FL is about as far west as Pittsburgh, PA despite Jacksonville being right on the Atlantic Coast and Pittsburgh being nestled in the Appalachian Plateaus
I checked and apparently Jacksonvie ks even further west. About as far west as Cleveland.
Similarly, it's why Savannah, Ga., has been growing as a port -- it's as far west as some Midwest states.
White it's not in the US Puerto Vallarta Mexico is on the same time as Chicago even though it's on the west coast.
How is this even worth mentioning? This is obvious from looking at a map.
@@michaeldrabenstott9756 What does that have to do with why it's growing as a port? Please elaborate.
Considering that one of the requirements of an interstate is that can accommodate the movement of military vehicles, it makes perfect sense that Hawaii has some interstates considering the state's military important
Pretty sure that lush mountain causeway in the thumbnail was specifically built to link Pearl Harbor to another military facility.
There are other intrastate interstates in other states like I-17 and I-19 in Arizona and I-4 in Florida
@@wncjan Not to mention every city loop 3-digit "interstate" that surrounds any city not near a state border (and even some that are like I-370 near St. Louis, MO).
I-99 in Pennsylvania and I-97 in Maryland come to mind
@@wncjan Alaska and Puerto Rico have intrastate interstates as well, although unsigned.
Great video! One oddity that I've found is that the quickest route to get from Detroit, Michigan to Buffalo, New York is entirely through Canada.
...and the quickest way to drive from Vancouver, BC to Toronto, Ontario is almost entirely through the US.
@@TheJhn924 Yup! And when flying from Vancouver to Toronto, it is quite frequent that more than 80 per cent of the flight is in US air space.
@@bobsnelling8395 True... to what extent usually depends on the jet stream so it's more common on westbound travel.
I have family in Hawaii, so I've driven those three interstates quite a few times. H3 is a beautiful drive, but due to the viaduct going over the hilly rainforest and through the mountains in the middle of the island, there's a very long stretch with no exits and no opportunity to turn around. This bit me in the butt during one trip when I had driven all the way to the windward side of the island, took a wrong turn, ended up back on H3 at the last entrance before the tunnel, and had to drive pretty much all the way back to Honolulu just to turn around!
Speaking of Honolulu, it's one of those weird cases of a city and county being consolidated. Technically the entire island (and all but one of the outlying islands out beyond Kauai and Niihau) is part of the City and County of Honolulu, even though in practice nobody's gonna put Honolulu on an envelope or into their GPS if the destination is Mililani or Haleiwa or Kaneohe, etc.
And Aiea is the only town (technically census-designated place) in the U.S. to have only vowels in its name. That's more of a language quirk than a geography quirk, but still a fun fact.
Is Honolulu truly both a city and county, or is it a city that's not part of any county like St. Louis, MO and Washington, D.C.?
Kyle , there are so any of us that are wired like you!
Love the maps, oddities, and the geographic anomalies. Thank you!
I use I19 in AZ frequently and only recently noticed that, while the green signs are all in km, the speed limit signs are still in mph
Huh? Last that I checked, it was all km, even though I never visited AZ. I do my research on the web.
@@mistershaf9648 No, they're in miles but they just say a number (75 mostly) and no unit so easy mistake to make until you realize how slow 75 km/hr is.
@@ReverendMeat51 You’re right! I converted 75 miles per hour into km/hr and I came up with about 121 km/hr. That is a more appropriate speed limit for AZ than approximately 47 miles per hour.
@@mistershaf9648 Yep, it'd be a reasonable speed on a lot of roads here but definitely not the interstate! You should visit AZ sometime if you can btw, the Sonoran desert is beautiful :)
Back in the late 80s my buddy and I were driving in Tennessee. We saw a road sign " Metric road signs next 100 miles". I started laughing my buddy didn't get it until the next day , then he started laughing .
Love your channel! Here are some fun geography quirks/oddities about my beautiful state of Utah:
The Uinta mountain range in Northeast Utah is the largest east-west mountain range in the US (and if I'm not wrong also the only east-west range in the Rockie Mountains). There are also over 1,000 lakes located in the Uintas, meaning that "the land of 1,000 lakes" can also apply to the desert state of Utah.
Utah's Jordan River begins in a freshwater lake, and empties into a salt lake, just like the Jordan River on the Israel-Jordan border in the Middle East.
Most of Utah also used to be a large sea, meaning you can find fossils of sea creatures over 4,000 miles from the nearest ocean.
Due to algal bloom and different salinity levels, the Great Salt Lake is basically two lakes, each half a different color (one pink one blue) and you can see the two halves from space. The Great Salt Lake is also the largest lake in the US after the Great Lakes of course.
Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado are the only states whose borders are defined entirely by straight lines and no natural features, and of those three states, Utah is the only one that isn't a quadrilateral. Since all its lines are straight it is technically an irregular hexagon.
-Colorado has 697 sides-
Doesn't New Mexico have all straight lines for borders?
@@thepoopookid1 no, there look at new mexicos border with texas at el paso
Cool info, Beehive State man...thanks!
Minnesota is the "Land of 10,000 Lakes". So, the desert has some catching up to do.
Merry Christmas Kyle!
To answer your question at 9:40, the city of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada has its Chinatown (97th Street) located near Little Italy (95th Street). I lived in Edmonton briefly about 20 years ago, and at the time I thought the proximity of those neighbourhoods was quite unique. Pretty cool to hear that New York and San Francisco are similar to Edmonton in that regard.
Another quirk you may find interesting about the relationship between Newfoundland and St-Pierre et Miquelon, from 3:45 in the video, is the configuration of time zones in that area. The province of Newfoundland & Labrador has two time zones (UTC -04:00 and UTC -03:30), and St-Pierre et Miquelon has one time zone (UTC -03:00). So if you travel from Saint-Pierre to St. John's, you actually go back in time (zones) by travelling east. I can't think of another place in the world like that. Can you?
Thanks for another great video!
The goat of TH-cam geography. Merry Christmas Kyle. Thank you for all you do.
I'm a land surveyor, and I just attended a seminar a couple weeks ago concerning original surveys and state borders. Long story short, GA will have an incredibly tough time adjusting its border with TN, since the courts have ruled now for over two centuries that, in general, the location of a state border is fixed by the original survey, regardless of any errors which may have occurred in that survey. Otherwise, every time a new and better piece of technology came along to measure the location of the lines, they would move, creating chaos, which the courts generally don't like
Five years or so ago, the NC - SC border was "corrected" for survey errors. Given all the disruptions, I don't understand why they didn't let that sleeping dog lie.
Interesting, i know a town on the Vermont/Canada border is famously litterally bisected by the international border because the original survey was half a mile off so the town was settled in the wrong spot.
I believe part of the explanation for those old survey errors, in addition to using tools like 50ft chains that are obviously less accurate than GPS, is that they were paid in part with whiskey so they were drunk while doing their survey duties. Honestly only being off by half a mile when drunk in the woods with late 1700's survey tech is very impressive.
There are places in the Midwest where surveyors were paid by the government, but where they just pocketed the money and drew up fraudulent surveys. Some would show rivers or roads which never existed. I'm not saying this was a common occurrence, but it did happen.
@@hgman3920 technically google still does this but as copyright protection. Hilariously someone named a store after the "fake town" on google maps making it now a real town and google lost the copyright fight with apple maps. Other things they do is making sidewalks in parks be labeled as roads so they can catch others making the same mistakes.
I also know someone got sick of exploring Africa and drew in a really big mountain ramge called the Atlas mountains basically cutting off the bottom edge of the savanna below the Sahara all the way across the continent. Apparently these fictional mountains still end up on less reputable maps even today. (I want to say he did it in the victorian era)
I want to say "half as interesting" is the channel with videos on these topics. (Or one of the dudes 3 other channels)
North and South Carolina actually moved part of the state border a few years back after agreeing to jointly re-survey. There were some homes and businesses affected but I think both states went out of their way to make it easier on them.
So Glad to see ya upload! Hope your Vacay was awesome! 😎😎
It was great! But reality has returned
These little snippets are really fun and well presented. Some of them might deserve their own episodes. Thanks for these. Love your channel.
Nice videos! I think a video on unintentional, man-made geologic formations in the US (Providence Canyon in Georgia or the sinkholes in Texas and Louisiana) would be really interesting...
That would be very cool!
Or the super-poison lake in butte Montana
Hey Kyle you could do a whole video on Suburban American Indian Reservations especially in places like San Diego and
Phoenix.
Urban rather than suburban, but we have a tiny Wyandotte Reservation in downtown Kansas City, KS.
Another possibility is the rural Mohawk reservation that apears to litterally stradle the US/Canada border at the litteral northern edge of NY. It apears to have several roads between the Nations without any sort of Customs barriers visible on google earth. I'm curious how that works, i know that the native tribes are technically fully sovriegn nations capable of diplomacy outside the US. I'm sure theres a long trail of legal history on this strange relationship between the USA and its native tribes that are both apart of it yet independent. (Beyond the obvious shameful treaty breaking era)
Correction for the part about Earth's moon: you'd actually need to drive across that distance 3.14159 times, as circumference is equal to pi times diameter (diameter being twice the radius)
Took me a while to find you...I was looking to see if anyone else caught this👍
You’re the best in the geodork info biz. No one does it better. Countless hours of delightful nuggets. Thanks.
I like how precise you are in your language that you felt the need to add the word ‘quirks’ to your video title. And great video as always!
8:12 If you look closely, Alexandria and Arlington form a perfect square with DC. They were both originally part of DC, but left in the early 1800’s and rejoined Virginia, mainly due to the issue of slavery.
maybe they should go back to DC again. Imagine the fighting over that issue, especially since there is some movement to make DC its own state, which I think would be a terrible idea.
As a geography nerd I love your content. Never stop doing what you love brother!
Arlington is also the smallest self-governing county in the US, probably because it was artificially separated for the creation of DC (if you look at the border you can see how it completed the 100mi square) and returned to VA in 1847
Actually that’s false, it’s Lemur Jackson County.
@@LemurJackson , actually, thats false. its Kalawao County, HI
Actually those of us left in the real Virginia would love to give it back to DC!
These are my favorite videos you do. Thank you Kyle. I have one for your next one. Jefferson County, WA has two halves that are split by the Olympic mountain range, with the vast majority of people living on the eastern half. This happened when Clallam County was created out of its northwestern portion. Another Washington one, Greenwater, WA is a small area in WA that is in Pierce County but the only way to access it by road in the winter is from King County. In the summer you can get there from two other counties as well.
Since you brought up Brazil and France. Did you realize that you can cross the border between the two? Since French Guyana is part of France and not a "colony"
Not a colony? Well, it is an integral part of France, but France wasn't in South America from the beginning of time, and thus colonized the land that became French Guiana. Just because it is a part of France doesn't preclude the obviousness of it also being a colony.
@@marmac83 Yeah, "not a territory" would be more accurate.
@@Compucles Is THat a way to get around the Monroe Doctrine? We don't like the idea of Europeans "owning" pieces of the New World.
@@marmac83 It's the same as with the US and Hawai. it's now an integral part of the US but historically it was its own kingdom that got colonized by the US and taken over.
I would argue that Puerto Rico still is a colony as they don't have a say in self determination or nationwide politics🤔
Let's go!! This is absolutely my favorite series on your channel, I really hope you make more!
Making the trip from Florence, Al to Knoxville, Tn to work several years ago. I always remember one spot. And that is the huge fireworks warehouse in the middle of the highway (I wanna say US 64) between South Pittsburgh, and Nickajack reservoir. I also loved once you hit I 24, and I 75. That ride on the interstate overlooking Chattanooga, and seeing lookout mountain is a cool site.
Big Daddy's! That is a very pretty drive. We thought about buying property over there when we moved but the commute to downtown Chattanooga from there is a bit of a pain.
@@GeographyKing For some reason I remember a huge sign that displayed "Tennessee/Alabama" fireworks. This was May-June of 2005. You may not have lived in Chattanooga at that time. I think you had stated you were living out west in California at one time.
Neat! I love interesting facts like these! 👍✔
I love these oddities and quirks! This has been a great series.
Always a good day when Geography King uploads a new video. Keep up the good work my man!
This channel inspires me to see more, do more and explore. Thank you for that:)
I’ve been to Chattanooga and will remember the day for the rest of my life. The Ruby Falls excursion blew my mind, looking out and seeing all the different states from one spot was crazy, had some barbecue from a random worn out spot that made me rethink what bbq really was, and also some random dude gave me alcohol outside of a gas station. Just a fantastic all around city. Keep doing you buddy!
Good to see you are okay from those twisters. Great show. Love these odd ones
Hawaii is such a welcoming place, they have “HI” on their signs! 🙂
As someone from Oklahoma… OK
If you only knew the dark side of Hawaii. It aint all happy beach parties.
@@robertgiles9124 Just like Florida where Iive.
Call me surprised from Ohio - OH!
And then there’s Maine. Does anyone else think their abbreviation is self-centred, or is it just me?
Watching this channel really makes one appreciate the diversity and how endearing certain obscure places are in the grand scope of things.
Toronto has several Chinatowns. The main one downtown is located adjacent to the historic Little Italy district. Made me go 🤔
Love your videos. I will have to add that Albertville, Boaz and part of Guntersville are on Sand Mountain. But you nailed it about having no one singular big city… just a train of small ones. Good job!
The king is back, all hail the king!
My favorite series 🗺️... fascinating...
Here's a Canadian oddity I think you'll like:
On Lake Huron is Manitou Island, which is the largest "lake island" on the planet.
On Manitou Island is Lake Manitou, which is the largest "lake island lake" on the planet.
On Lake Manitou are numerous small islands. So it's possible to be on an island in a lake on an island in a lake
Manitoulin Island...
Thanks for resuming this series. Glad to see you took my sugestion
I checked in Toronto, and Chinatown and Little Italy are fairly close, not quite bordering, but like 1/2 km between the two.
In Ottawa they somewhat overlap.
In Edmonton, both are literally considered a single business district.
having Chinatown and Little Italy situated next to each other in many cities is known as the Marco Polo effect.
I think part of it is the fact that the immigrant communities tend to be concentrated in the CBD so there's a high likelihood of them being next to each other because of that. Don't hear of many Little Italy's located in the suburban periphery of cities
Also the fact that, for the most part their waves came at different times - many a Chinese immigrant moved into the place vacated by a second-generation Italian American.
That sounds like some sort of Cliff Clavin fact.
Always look forward to your videos. Merry Christmas and happy New Years.
Here are a couple about the North Star state.
Eitzen, Minnesota (on the southeastern tip) is closer to the Kentucky border than it is to Hallock, Minnesota (on the northwestern tip).
Luverne, Minnesota (on the southwestern tip) is closer to Devil's Tower, Wyoming than it is to Grand Portage, Minnesota (on the northeastern tip).
I've been to Luverne
Kyle your videos are addicting. I am so glad I found your channel. I am a Geography Nerd.
Interesting, Toronto has Little Italy and Chinatown adjacent to one another as well!
I had no idea that there was a section of road in the United States that only used the metric system!
You are very informative! I hope that you and your family have a Blessed Christmas!
I came across this video by chance. I'm now a subscriber and I will soon be a patreon supporter. Is excellent work, informative, entertaining, Kudos to you friend.
my favorite TH-cam channel!
From Ironwood, Michigan, it takes less time to drive to the state capitals of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa than it is to drive to Lansing, MI. And you can almost add Bismarck, ND to that list; it’s only 2 miles further than a drive to Lansing, MI.
This channel is freaking awesome... I'm constantly asking the question why when I notice these things driving semi trucks across the US. It's fascinating how we choose to divy up areas to live.
Great Video! I've spent some time driving around West Texas and Loving County. There is now a gas station in Mentone so they have become quite the metropolitan area now... Another fact of Loving County: 30-40% of the population is employed by the county.
Great videos. Here are two quirks: 1. East Aurora NY is 131 miles west of Aurora NY; 2. You mentioned that the only Interstate highway to dip into another state was I-24 just south of Chattanooga. There is a short (about 1 mile) stretch of I-86 that crosses into PA from NY in South Waverly PA.
You should look at the border between Maryland and Virginia on the patomac, especially on satellite view. Because the charter did not put the border right down the middle of the river, instead the whole river was given to Maryland. This creates some chunks of Maryland, similar to the Delaware situation you mentioned in your video.
I think the borders in these instances are defined by the lowtide marks.
As a transplanted resident of Delaware of 15 years, I never knew about Finns Point being across the river. Thanks for the tidbit and keep these great geographic oddity videos coming.
Growing up I was so interested in geography and history . Idk why but I just love learning and bro u have taught me so much I ain't know. So I give u much props and respect. Love ya videos
Love your content brother. Just binged on the first three of these and have been really digging it. Fascinating and challenging, alot of fun. Cheers!
Loving Texas is probably named after Oliver loving of the goodnight -loving cattle trail that runs from Texas through New Mexico up to Wyoming 2:40
Chicago's Little Italy and Chinatown are less than 2 mi apart 9:00
Well done! I’ve been a geography nerd my whole life and I didn’t know most of these!
10:05 might want to fact check that driving distance statement
Driving around the moon would mean driving the circumference, which is not the same as the diameter
Was going to comment something along those lines, but
Diameter of moon = Width of US
Circumference of moon = pi* Diameter of moon ~= 3 * diameter of moon
so 2 to 3 times the diameter.. close enough
Not if the Moon is flat, like the Earth.
@@swftwlly Nah, I'm pretty sure it's only the earth that's flat. We can tell every other body in the universe larger than a certain size is a sphere (or close enough). Only earth gets to be the special one defying the laws of physics! 😂
@@swftwlly 😂😂😂
Thank you for the Great Lakes tidbit. I always get Huron & Ontario mixed up, and this mnemonic solves that!
Don't know if it counts, but in milwaukee there's a stretch of road where you're driving on 43 south, 41 north, and 894 west all at the same time
At 2:00 ...lived in Hawaii from 1997 to 2000...and I always wondered how they had Interstates...BTW...H1 is the worst to drive east in the morning...it was usually a 60 minute drive from Ewa to Hickam...
Dr. Kyle, I'm enjoying your videos as always. Your comment about West St. Paul, MN reminded me of a tiny quirk in towns on the VA-WV border. Though perhaps not worth mentioning, Bluefield, WV is actually EAST of Bluefield, VA. All best wishes!
That type of 'non interstate interstates' exists not only in Hawaii, but also in Alaska (A1, A2, A3 and A4) and Puerto Rico (PR-1, PR-2 and PR-3).
Shout out to Alpine Texas, one of my favorite small towns to visit. (10:08) Before Alaska was admitted to the US, Alpine was the largest town, in the largest county (Brewster Co.) in the largest state at that time.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Very interesting as always. Appreciated the small nod to km's. We need a Geography King for Europe as well.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Kyle!
Nice job, very informative and entertaining. Keep up the good work
Nice piece! As a New Yorker who's spent lots of time in NJ, I appreciated the Delaware exclave part. Of course, now I must mention the 2 most obvious state exclaves right here in our city - Staten Island, and Ellis Island, both considered (at least in part) NYC land despite being NJ exclaves and having to cross NJ water to get to them.
YES LFG BEEN WAITING ON THIS FOREVER
I have a much better appreciation of our country since listening to your videos.
Ottawa Canada has a Chinatown and Little Italy melding into each other as well. The intersection of Somerset and Preston is roughly the North West corner of the two.
Merry Christmas Kyle! Thanks for all the great videos all year.
Hey, speaking of the Tennessee/Georgia border thing, isn't it funny how I-24 goes from Tennessee into Georgia then back into Tennessee? Maybe do a video on some other scenarios like this one in the US, how a road goes from one state to another, then back into the previous state. Off the top of my mind, this happens with I-684 (NY-CT-back to NY), US 50 in Maryland and West Virginia twice, and US 395 (CA-NV back to CA). Could be really interesting!
Love the vinyls in the background as always 👍ill always remember Swamp Dogg Rat On lol
H1 was highly protested when build as it went though sacred native land.
Charlie Robison wrote a song about Loving County.
Charlie's father coached basketball at my Jr High. He also taught a subject besides gym, as many coaches do.
I had him for Geography. He was better than many coach/teachers
I knew almost all of the earlier ones, and only a few of the later ones. Interesting stuff.
Happy Holidays Kyle!
In Ottawa Ontario Canada, Chinatown and Little Italy are adjacent.
Chinatown and Little Italy were also directly adjacent to each other in Los Angeles. I say were because Little Italy almost completely vanished, and Chinatown moved because it was demolished when Union Station was built. Chinatown moved took over where Little Italy was.
Thank you for sharing your discoveries and revelations.
Thanks, Kyle for the entertaining and informative video. You always put out quality content and you didn't disappoint with this. Kudos!
Another interesting feature of Northern Virginia is the difference between living in Fairfax County, Fairfax City, and Fairfax (within Fairfax County). I am from Fairfax, VA, within Fairfax County, but not in Fairfax City, which is 5 minutes from my childhood house. There are many other towns in Fairfax County, like Burke, Lorton, Fairfax Station, etc., but my address was Fairfax, VA. Same thing with Falls Church City vs. Falls Church, which is not in Falls Church City, but also in Fairfax County
Same with Alexandria (which, as a near-lifelong City of Alexandria resident, annoyed me to no end growing up)
Your videos are always so informative! Thank you!
This is an interesting topic. Can’t wait for part 4.
I love the Doug DeMuro reference with “quirks and features” 😂😂
Best geography youtuber. Hands down.
I love your videos! I thought I was the only one who chuckled while driving on I-77/I-81 in Virginia
Excellent video as always Kyle!
Another great video from Kyle! Love the geography videos!
Great show
Love the Doug impression at the beginning
I really enjoy these videos. Keep up the great work!
As a fellow Chattanoogan, I love that we were included in this video. My parents' house is right on the Georgia state line and would be one of those houses that would have to change states!