Smallest County in the USA, Epilogue

The previous entries discussed the whole issue of “smallest county in the United States” in way more detail that it probably deserved. However, I wanted to point out one more oddity. The smallest self-governing county and the smallest independent city share a common border!

So Arlington’s far western border runs straight along the entirety of Falls Church’s eastern border. This line forms part of the original District of Columbia boundary described in the previous post.

Originally this point served as DC’s “west cornerstone.” Now it stands as the northernmost point that Arlington and Falls Church share. Additionally, to make that situation even more interesting, Fairfax County also joins at that point. Thus three distinct geographic entities touch at the stone.

In this photograph, Falls Church is on the left side of the line and Arlington is on the right. Fairfax joins them at the stone enclosed within the cast iron fence in the distance. I discuss this location in more detail on my DC Boundary Stones page.

A quick final summary of posts in this series:

• Kalawao County, Hawaii
• New York County, New York and Bristol County, Rhode Island
• Independent Cities (Falls Church, Virginia)
• Arlington, Virginia