This is a rather special edition in a long series of intermittent Odds and Ends articles. I will call it Reader Mailbag for the obvious reason. Yes, comments, emails and tweets from Twelve Mile Circle readers inspired this one more than anything else. These topics were all completely unknown to me previously. So maybe I put a little context and perhaps some modest research into them, but precious little else. Their true inspiration came directly from the 12MC audience.
German Rest stop on a Dutch Motorway
Greg went to the TheReal12MC Twitter Account with awesome news. A rest area on the German side of the border sits along a stretch of highway within the Netherlands! He sent further information to me by email:
“The shoulder of the road here hugs the border with Germany, so travelers exit the Netherlands as soon as they pull off. Street View shows a change in pavement and road markings right where the border would be, so it looks like Germany maintains this rest area. The gas station in Germany is also a different company from the partner stop in the Netherlands.”
He concluded, and I agree, that this must have been a border control station in the pre-Schengen era. The infrastructure was already in place so it could have become a rest area with minimal effort. I noticed, as I wandered around vicariously in Street View, that a pedestrian overpass crossed between the two rest areas (image). I wonder if other purely pedestrian overpasses span between nations?
As a bonus, Greg also found a canal that flowed above a river in Ontario in two separate places (here and here). I did some quick checking and believe that this was the old Welland Canal. It connected Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, bypassing Niagara Falls. It did include aqueducts just like the ones Greg discovered at various points. The Welland Canal made an earlier appearance in 12MC too for another reason.
A Fan Site for a Water Sphere
Peter pointed out an unusual fan site devoted to a single water tower in Union, New Jersey (map). The 212 ft (65 m) structure received abundant adoration at worldstallestwatersphere.com. It even spawned its own acronym on the site, WTWS!
“…the old style water spheres are no longer built and are a dwindling piece of American history. Today water spheroids are the more popular water tower, and the old ‘sphere atop a mast’ style are no longer built.”
Can I confirm that this is truly the tallest water sphere? Of course not. However I certainly tip my hat to the author who has maintained an active site with regular updates on an incredibly specific topic since October 2005. That’s two years longer than I’ve been publishing 12MC! So that’s devotion.
A Weird European Capital Crescent
I’m not sure what to make of this interesting discovery made by Will T., who was kind enough to reproduce it on a map for us. Somehow the capital cities of six European nations line up in an unusually smooth curve. It almost seemed intentional. Who can come up with the best conspiracy theory? I’ll throw out a couple of the more obvious ones. Maybe it’s a sign of extraterrestrial intelligence and confirmation of ancient alien encounters. Or perhaps it’s an Islamic crescent that’s part of a secret plot to dominate the West. What else?
The Cincinnati Arm
Andy has been reading slowly through the 12MC archives and provided a number of comments by email for articles that I’ve closed. Unfortunately I had to take that drastic step for a number of articles. Bot spam was eating the site alive. I’d mentioned Denver’s freaky appendage back in 2010 and Andy countered with Cincinnati’s funky tendril (map).
The city calls this neighborhood Sayler Park. There’s a lot of speculation that it became part of Cincinnati because it was an industrial center located conveniently along the Ohio River. The tendril apparently started as three separate communities: Delhi on the Ohio; Home City; and Fernbank, tracing back to the mid 1800’s. Cincinnati annexed the land in 1911. Look closely and one will see that there is still a Home City Avenue (map) and a Fernbank Avenue (map) in Sayler Park today.
Andy also noted that an F5 tornado hit Sayler Park during the Super Outbreak of April 3–4, 1974. The Saylor Park tornado was the only tornado of the bunch to cross into three states. The damage was extensive.
Thanks for the great discoveries, everyone. Keep them coming!
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