16 Oddities of U.S. Geography

Examining 16 odd and quirky aspects of U.S. geography. With such a huge country as the U.S. there are bound to be some oddities and quirks with the geography. In this video I discuss several of these funny and strange aspects.

Part 2 of the series:

Part 3 of the series:

[GeographyKing]

Hey everyone. I wanted to say thank you for all of the comments on this video. There's been a lot of activity on this channel recently and I've been struggling to keep up with the comments. If you've commented or asked me a question and I haven't gotten back to you, I am trying to keep up but I may not be able to get to them all. But I did want to address one particular topic that represents at least a couple hundred of the comments here.

In the video I stated that the only four cities in the country where the city and county are the exact same thing are San Francisco, Philadelphia, Denver, and Broomfield, CO. Many commented on how there are numerous places in the US that have a consolidated city-county government (the most mentioned ones are Jacksonville, Nashville, Lexington KY, Augusta, Indianapolis, Kansas City KS and Honolulu). These were created to have increased efficiency in government services including law enforcement, schools, trash pickup, utilities, etc. The situation in those cities is a little different than the four I mentioned. For example, Jacksonville-Duval County, FL does not include the entirety of Duval County. A few beach communities (Jax Beach, Neptune Beach, Atlantic Beach) opted out of the agreement, so there are portions of the county that are not under the Jax-Duval consolidation. Kansas City KS, Augusta, and Indianapolis also have opt-outs. For Nashville, individual towns have some autonomy for things such as sign ordinances and noise ordinances. Alaska has some interesting outliers where vast areas of wilderness are often under the jurisdiction of the city-borough consolidation. Nantucket, MA is also unique in that the town has a population of 7, 400 and the county 10, 100, although they are one jurisdiction and MA calculates census places a little different than the rest of the US. Honolulu is different in that a person can be nowhere near the city (like say the North Shore) but still be in "Honolulu". It also includes several outlier islands that are nowhere near Oahu. The situation in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Denver, and Broomfield is different in that the literal urban built up area of the city limits is the exact same as the county. There is no distinction or consolidation of services. A neighborhood cannot opt out. There are no areas that are not 100% built up city that exist within the county. In the city-county consolidations there are many rural areas that are part of the jurisdiction but clearly not part of the city for anything other than efficiency of services. It's a fairly thin line but if you are familiar with SF, Philly, or Denver you know the distinction. The most similar ones would be the Cities of St. Louis, Baltimore, and Carson City NV. These three are independent cities but none of those three is in a county at all. Arlington, VA is different in that it is a county only and not a city. And finally I did not mention in the video but just as strange is the fact that New York City is divided into five counties, with each borough being its own county, making it the only city where the city government is of higher order than the county. Ok so that's a ridiculously long post but it just goes to show how US geography can be weird sometimes. Thanks again for all of your comments.

[akshanshchauhan]

This guy's straight to the point, accurate, no filler content at all, and has genuinely interesting videos. He's like the anti-youtuber.

[mickmccrory]

The farther north you go in Florida, the deeper down south you get.

[NintendoCollecting]

I don't know what I was expecting when I clicked on this video, but that was pretty quirky

[adventure]

My favorite US geographical oddity is that Alaska has not only the northern and westernmost points in the US, but technically also the easternmost. Semisopochnoi, one of the Aleutian Islands, lies about ten miles beyond the 180th meridian, making it the easternmost US point in the eastern hemisphere. The westernmost point is the Aleutian island of Amatignak, which is only about 71 miles from Semisopochnoi in opposite hemispheres.

[DuckOfRubber]

My favorite US geographic oddity is the fact that Virginia extends further west than West Virginia.

[spacelemur]

I really like your low-hype presentation. It is very refreshing compared to rankings etc.

[Jarekthegamingdragon]

My favorite fun fact is that Portland, OR is further north than Toronto. Which also means that Seattle and Vancouver are also further north. All three PNW cities are known for rain and moderate weather, while toronto is known for snow while being further south.

[davidwilliams]

There is an area of SE Oregon that is in the Mountain Time Zone and the western part of the Florida panhandle is in the Central Time Zone, thus parts of Oregon and Florida are only one hour apart!

[Jerubarbaruah]

Wow, bless the Youtube algorithm for bringing me this video today. I loved how straight to the point and no nonsense you are. This was both entertaining and informative.

[rvdxpress]

One of my favorite quirks comes straight from your neck of the woods. If you are driving eastbound on interstate 24 in Tennessee, towards Chattanooga; you will reach the state of Georgia before you reach Chattanooga. Being a trucker, I notice so many little oddities. Great video, loved it!

[johnhoswald]

Your section on cities and counties reminded me that New York City has five counties inside of its city limits. The five counties correspond to the five ""boroughs" of NYC, but the boroughs and the counties have different names, with one exception. Here are the five boroughs followed by their county name: Manhattan/New York County; The Bronx/Bronx County; Brooklyn/Kings County; Staten Island/Richmond County; and Queens/Queens County.

[Rileyrage]

“And now, the quirks and features of U.S. Geography.” - Doug Demuro

[allanrichardson]

The three most important capitals in Egyptian history, Memphis, Alexandria, and Cairo, all on the Nile River, have American namesake cities on the Mississippi River: Memphis, Tennessee; Alexandria, Louisiana; and Cairo, Illinois.

[fatherstevek]

El Paso, TX is closer to San Diego, CA (724 miles) than it is to Houston, TX (773 mi)!

[williamhubel]

It’s amazing flying out of Vegas and you can literally see where one person’s backyard ends and 100s of miles of vast empty desert begins

[DuckOfRubber]

When daylight savings time ends in the Central timezone and 2am CDT becomes 1am CST, for 1 hour it is the same time in western Florida and eastern Oregon.

[drew]

FINALLY someone calls out West St. Paul and its crimes.

[stefB_]

This video put a smile on my face, I can tell how much you enjoy geography and sharing it with people :)

[julianlineham]

As a structural engineer I’m pleased you’re telling people about seismic risks outside the West Coast. Great video, as always, thanks