The wondrous world of geography
November 26, 2013 6:38 AM   Subscribe

Twelve Mile Circle: a collection of geographical oddities and unusual places. The site is chock-full of short, well-written pieces on fascinating geographical phenomena around the globe, ranging from time zone oddities to islands joining the mainland to trap streets to roads with unusually low clearance. Among the many categories are borders, time, international oddities, roads, elevation, water, weather, US counties and states, Canada, terrain, history, government, etc. You can view all articles (there are a lot!) on a map as well.
posted by andrewesque (13 comments total) 67 users marked this as a favorite
 
Those clearances aren’t as low as this one: I have to duck to walk under it…
posted by misteraitch at 6:44 AM on November 26, 2013


Long time reader here, 12 Mile Circle is great.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:03 AM on November 26, 2013


I have work to do here damnit people!
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 7:04 AM on November 26, 2013 [3 favorites]


This is a great site. I can't believe I only found it recently.
posted by chinston at 7:35 AM on November 26, 2013


Calgary Bus Traps.

Wow. I know better than to underestimate the intelligence of the American people, but this is Canada, so I guess the city planners figured they could get away with it.
posted by adamrice at 7:35 AM on November 26, 2013


I enjoyed the Mistaken Identity posts. They reminded me of the day my wife and I got married; we were married at Westminster Hall, but the decorations got sent to Westminster.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:07 AM on November 26, 2013


WTF Bus traps? I really enjoy weird and confusing pranks, but I usually don't expect them to be pulled off by traffic engineers and city council members.
posted by kiltedtaco at 8:20 AM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


I note in the post about towns in Texas that have the same name as more famous towns elsewhere, that one is called Santa Fe - after the Santa Fe railroad that goes through it. I cannot offhand think of a decision more likely to cause confusion than renaming a place on a railroad after another place already on the railroad.

But then, it has a nearby airport called Kami-Kazi..

I begin to see why Texas and Florida consider themselves rivals.
posted by Devonian at 8:23 AM on November 26, 2013


I checked out the map view to see if there was anything interesting in my neighborhood that I hadn't found yet. His concern about the sign reading "Children's Museum bans guns in these premises" was interesting to me. When MN started allowing concealed weapons several years ago, the law was written such that any business could prevent gun owners, even ones with concealed-carry permits, from bringing guns into their buildings. Even if you have a permit, it's not legal to bring a gun into a building with a properly-worded sign posted. This led to basically every business posting such a sign at their front door, whether it's the Children's Museum, an office park, a deli, a hospital, or a hair salon. It was pretty jarring at first, but now I think most Minnesotans don't even notice the signs.
posted by vytae at 9:10 AM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


There was a somewhat notorious low clearance around the corner from the house I grew up in, Harrell Road in Falmouth, VA at 9' 2". I see that the conduit running underneath the bridge is still bent upwards. That happened in the late 1980's when a dump truck hit the bridge. Sadly, the driver wasn't wearing a seatbelt so he was ejected from the cab and killed.
posted by smoothvirus at 11:54 AM on November 26, 2013


There is a time zone anomaly in Alaska. The entire town of Metlakatla decided to follow Pacific standard time instead of Alaska standard time. They also do not participate in Daylight Savings.
posted by Foam Pants at 2:20 PM on November 26, 2013 [1 favorite]


Holy cow! I can see my house from here. (Because there are no mountains by my home.)
posted by BlueHorse at 3:06 PM on November 26, 2013


kiltedtaco: "WTF Bus traps?"
There's a couple of them in Copenhagen too. It's a very simple and low-cost solution (except for the knuckleheads who get stuck in them). The major problem is that when someone gets stuck, they block the public transport from passing.
posted by brokkr at 3:12 PM on November 26, 2013


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