Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 279, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1920 — DIMENSIONS OF UNITED STATES [ARTICLE]

DIMENSIONS OF UNITED STATES

interesting Data Compiled by the Geological Survey, Department of Interior. ■ ■ ' COAST UNE IS 12,000 MILES Gross Area Is More Than 3,000,000 Square Mlles—Southernmost Point IS Caps Sable, Fla, Northern- ' moot Point Is In Minnesota. Washington.—The gross area the United States is 3,026,789 square miles. The land area amounts to 2,973,774 square miles, and the water area—exelusive of the area of the Great Lakes, the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico within the three-mile Hunt—amounts to 58,016 square miles. These and other data determined or compiled by the United States geological survey, department of the interior, to show the limits of the continental United States contain some interesting facts. The southernmost point of the mainland is Cape Sable, Fla., which is in

latitude 26 degrees 7 minutes and longitude 81 degrees 6 minutes. The ■extreme southern part of Texas is in latitude 25 degrees 60 minutes and longitude 97' degrees 24 minutes. Cape Sable is therefore 49 miles farther south than the most southern point in ..Texas. . . ' ■ A small detached land area of northern Minnesota at longitude 96 degrees 9 minutes extends northward to latitude 49 degrees 28 minutes. The easternmost point, of the United States is West Quoddy head, near Eastport, Me., in longitude 66 degrees 57 minutes and latitude 44 degrees 49 minutes; the westernmost point is Cape Alva, Wash, tn latitude 48 degrees 10 minutes, which extends Into the Pacific ocean to longitude 124 degrees 45 minutes. From the southernmost point In Texas, due north to the forty-ninth parallel, the boundary between the United States and Canada, the distance is 1,598 miles. From West Quoddy head due west to the Pacific ocean the distance is 2,807 miles. The shortest distance from the Atlantic to the Pacific across, the United States

Is between points near Charleston. 8. C, and San Diego, Cat, and Is 23® miles. The length of the Canadian boundary line from the Atlantic to Pacific Is 3,898 miles. The length of the Mexican boundary from the gulf to the Pacific is 1,744 miles. The length of the Atlantic coast line is 54100 miles and that of the Pacific coast Une M 2,730 miles. The Gulf of Mexico borders the United States for *640 milea Curved Lines on the Map. Nearly all maps of the Unite* States show the parallels of latitude as curved lines and are likely to lea* the ordinary observer to believe that certain eastern or western states am farther north than some of the central states that are actually to the sama latitude. For this reason one who,lai asked which extends farther south. Florida or Texas, Is very IBtely to say “Texas/’ but, as stated, the mainland of Florida is nearly fifty miles farther south than the southernmost point i* Texas. For the same reason, when ww consider the geographic positions of countries south of the United Staten we find that errors are likely to made in estimating position or extent tn longitude. Few realise that the island of Cuba, for example, if transferred directly north would extend* from New York city to Indiana, or that; Havana is farther west thin Cleveland, Ohio, or that the Panama canaf U due south of Pittsburgh. Pa., or that Nome, Alaska, Is farther west thaw Hawaii.