So I’m not sure the title adequately conveyed what I’m trying to describe. Unfortunately, I can’t think of a better concise title to replace it either. Conceptually, I wanted to know the northernmost and southernmost places in the world and in the United States where one could cross an international border by automobile via a road connected to the larger grid.
There are plenty of places farther north where one could cross a border on foot. Perhaps that might happen after a long ship voyage or an airline flight. However, I specifically wanted to use a motorized vehicle on an established road. Those road crossings would be cardinal direction border extremes for the average tourist as opposed to the adventurous explorer. You know, ones that I might actually experience someday.
These were the best examples I could find. I’d love see improvements.
Northernmost
The absolutely farthest northern road crossing an international border that I found occurred between Polmak, Norway and Nuorgam, Finland. It crossed at an astounding 70 degrees north of the equator. By contrast the Arctic Circle is at about 66.56 degrees north. Barrow, Alaska — about as far north as one can get in the United States — is only slightly farther north (at 71 degrees). And Barrow doesn’t connect to anything by road, much less internationally. This is crazy far north.
Both nations are part of the Schengen Area so one can cross the border freely. In the Street View image it looked like someone converted the former border station into a row of shops.
Northernmost United States (and Canada)
The United States and Canada share the same northernmost international border crossing at Poker Creek, Alaska / Little Gold Creek, Yukon (map) along the Top of the World Highway. It’s located at about 64 degrees north.
This also demonstrated how few roads crossed this rugged, isolated terrain. You see, the border extended another 380 miles (612 kilometres) due north without a single other road crossing it. This border station closes in the winter so I’m willing to concede that purists may wish to look farther south to the Alaska-Canadian Highway for a more complete example, one that remains open 24X7 all year long (map).
What about the Lower 48 states? I think the northernmost crossing would be the place where the border jogs around to form the Northwest Angle (map). Weekend Roady visited this one in person and I won’t try to improve upon his first-hand description.
Southernmost
The record wasn’t clear-cut at the southern end, nor was it quite as extreme. I think it may be a spot on Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego at around 54 degrees south. However, that’s not even as far south as Ushuaia (featured on 12MC previously), the southernmost town of significance in Argentina. There may also be an error on the Google Map too. Google seems to have issues with borderlines, a condition I’ve observed before. Notice the vertical fence line about 100 metres west of Google’s line. Could that be the true boundary?
I thought perhaps there might be a car ferry between Ushuaia, Argentina and Puerto Williams, Chile. It seemed natural and I’d be willing to bend the “road” rule to accommodate a ferry. It wouldn’t violate the spirit, right? Nonetheless, Wikipedia said of Puerto Williams, “There is no regular link with Argentina and connection to Ushuaia is restricted.”
Actually, Puerto Williams exists primarily for the Chilean navy to assert national sovereignty at the farthest tip of South America. It was once a rather sensitive military area although tourism has begun to creep in.
I did see Internet references to possible travel between the two places, albeit not very conveniently. At least one company provided seasonal (October-March) zodiac service to Isla Navarino. From there one could take a minibus to Puerto Williams. However, that wouldn’t qualify as an automobile crossing by any stretch of the imagination. So I’m not going to count it.
Southernmost Southmost USA
Eyeball estimates led me to believe that the southernmost border crossing in the United States might be at Brownsville, Texas. There it provided access to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, México. That was located at about 25.9 degrees north. A whole bunch of the world exists farther south than that.
That’s not what I enjoyed the most, though. The existence of Southmost Boulevard amused me more than anything. That’s southmost not southernmost. A shorter word with the same meaning. It sounded a little odd. Maybe I can learn to love it?
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