The Twelve Mile Circle audience loves little puzzles. Knowing that, I thought I might try to fold a couple of related ideas that have fascinated lately into a single entry.
First Dimension
I looked back to one of the more popular 12MC concepts, the Longest Google Maps Routes. I published that about eighteen months ago and it continues to be a popular page. Various social media and aggregator sites “rediscover” it from time-to-time, giving it new life. It’s quieted down a bit since the comments period closed after a year. Unfortunately I’ve had to specify an open comment period for all articles to try to tame a never-ending torrent of spam.
Second Dimension
The second related page focused on my journey to Kentucky last summer. Back then I noted the tremendous amount of time and distance I covered before I ever left the Commonwealth of Virginia. The drive was a bit exaggerated because I took a small detour to capture the independent city of Norton which counted as a county-equivalent for county counting purposes. However, the journey stretched an impressive distance even discounting the jog. I knew about all of that ahead of time of course. Nonetheless, understanding something and experiencing it in person differ considerably.
Rules
With all that in mind, I’d begun to wonder about the longest Google Maps default drives in layers of geography that mattered to me. Specifically I focused on my home county, state and nation. I made the rules simple. First, it had to be the primary default point-to-point route suggested by Google. Second, it could not cross the borders of the home jurisdiction. Third, I couldn’t add intermediate points manually and I had to remain within the lines. Bridges were fine. Ferries were not. As an example, the rules wouldn’t allow anyone to use the Alaska Marine Highway System to link Alaska to the Lower 48.
Admittedly, I formulated completely arbitrary rules designed to create some focus and structure.
County – Arlington
The odd thing I’ve learned from Google Maps over the years is that some other person submitting the same endpoints might get the second option as the first one. Additionally that the recommended route could change over time. I can only say that the solution I found this morning worked. It could be completely different for you either today or if you came back in six months or six years.
These county estimates were difficult to determine. County lines in Google Maps disappear at a critical point as one drills-down. One has to have a pretty good mastery of the boundaries before starting and then go through a bit of trial and error.
State – Virginia
It turned out that my lengthy drive completely within Virginia’s borders was impressive. However, it stretched nowhere near as long as theoretically possible. For that, one would need to start from the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge (my visit) on the Atlantic Ocean, on Virginia’s eastern shore. The route led to some random point west of Big Stone Gap near the Kentucky border. In total, the distance going either direction came to 576 miles (927 km).
Nation – United States
I felt considerably less confident in my result for the United States. I found a decent distance. 12MC readers should be able to improve upon it, perhaps considerably. The route from Key West, Florida to a very westerly point on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula near Flattery Rocks National Wildlife Refuge stretched to 3,661 miles (5,892 km), a smidgen longer than the reverse of those same directions. One should be able to finish that journey by automobile with 55 hours of continuous driving. I wouldn’t recommend it.
This exercise could be expanded to other geographic territories, perhaps ones meaningful to individual 12MC readers. I played around with Canada a bit. The biggest challenge was Google’s bias towards U.S. highways to route Canadians around various Great Lakes. I also took things to a somewhat ridiculous extreme by examining Luxembourg, where I uncovered a 119 km (74 mi) route. I even went Down Under to New South Wales, Australia where my best find stretched to 1,797 km (1,117 mi).
Have fun!
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