Your typical American border is the straight line, as demonstrated by the US-Canadian border that follows the 49th parallel for approximately 1.245 miles (2.000 km), longer than any other linear boundary; and by Utah Phillips’ observation that “out west the states are square”.
A delightful exception to the straight border is the circular demarcation between Pennsylvania and Delaware, dubbed the Twelve Mile Circle. This is the only US boundary that’s a true arc… Unless you consider the 49th parallel border and all the other boundaries based on latitude (which are therefore centred around the North Pole) as arcs too.
As the name implies, the circle has a radius of exactly 12 miles, centred on the cupola of the New Castle courthouse. The centre of the circle has been fixed on that cupola since 1750, but the Twelve Mile Circle is older than that, dating back to the original deed of Delaware by the Duke of York to William Penn, on August 24th of 1682:
“All that the Towne of Newcastle otherwise called Delaware and All that Tract of Land lying within the Compass or Circle of Twelve Miles about the same scituate lying and being upon the River Delaware in America And all Islands in the same River Delaware and the said River and Soyle thereof lying North of the Southermost part of the said Circle of Twelve Miles about the said Towne.”
This paragraph has caused another demarcatory anomaly in the Delaware River, the border between Delaware and New Jersey. In most rivers that divide two political entities, the boundary is drawn right down the middle of the stream. Yet in this river, the Twelve Mile Circle continues into the river up unto the New Jersey shoreline. And only there does the state of Delaware stop, claiming the entire river and hemming in New Jersey.
New Jersey has challenged this demarcation up to the Supreme Court (in 1934 and 1935), which refused to rule and instead reprimanded the states for even fighting about this. And yet, as recently as 2006, a study was commissioned on the border dispute. Legislators of both states have made aggressive noises about each others’ claims, Delaware symbolically calling upon the National Guard to defend state shores and New Jerseyites obliquely mentioning the battleship named after their state, moored just upriver…
This image taken from Wikipedia, here.
I have always wondered about boundaries in maps, and by what logic spaces are apportioned, and how the lines drawn are determined, by whom. On a personal scale, although I may lust for ownership of a strip of my neighbour’s plot, my wishing won’t make it so, nor will my aggressive encroachment.
I love this site!
Comment by suburbanlife — January 24, 2007 @ 12:45 pm
I don’t know how rare borders that don’t bisect a river actually are — for instance, having lived in DC, I know several people who made a point of mentioning to me that Maryland owns the entirety of the Potomac.
Comment by fweebles — January 24, 2007 @ 2:48 pm
Ohio doesn’t own the Ohio, either – there was a Supreme Court case in the 1980s confirming this.
While the Fugitive Slave Act was in force in the 1850s, Ohioans by the river used to wait anxiously on the shore for fugitive slaves who were trying to swim across, waiting to help them as soon as they crossed the high water mark out of Kentucky/Virginia.
A couple of years ago, there was a baseball which was hit all the way out of Cincinnati’s riverfront baseball stadium, which bounced down the embankment and into the river. Commentators amused themselves at the time by pointing out that this was the first major-league home run ever to cross state lines.
Comment by Sartorius — January 24, 2007 @ 3:43 pm
New Jersey would SO kick Delaware’s butt!
Comment by 95er — January 24, 2007 @ 5:11 pm
And if there’s an island in the river, it opens the whole new can of worms — consider the Russia/China border along Amur.
By the way, a parallel is centered around a point on the diameter that connects North and South poles, i.e. each parallel has its own center within the Earth’s body.
Comment by grundes — January 25, 2007 @ 6:21 am
Thomas Pynchon’s fantastical novel Mason & Dixon contains a very interesting section on the surveying of the Delaware/PA/Maryland border – evidently there was a huge controversy over the part of the MD/DEL border just below where the arc ends and it juts westward just a skootch into Maryland.
Comment by Andy — January 25, 2007 @ 2:04 pm
Also of note, clearly visible on the map, is that little nit of land that juts out from Southwestern NJ and falls within Delaware’s border. It is the approximate location of Fort Mott, and the land was deeded to Delaware because the river bottom dredging that was used as fill, technicaly came from Delaware, so they claimed it. It’t the only place where you can travel from NJ to Delaware without crossing the river.
Little bit of NJ trivia for those late night bar room arguments.
Comment by gregor — January 25, 2007 @ 5:29 pm
Gregor, that’s not the only place where you can travel from NJ to Delaware without crossing the river. There’s another, too. Give me a minute to find it….
OK, I’m back. It actually should be (but is not) marked on the map shown on this website. It’s where the river makes a big “C” just a bit south of New Castle; a significant portion of the eastern shore there (i.e. what’s jutting out into the “C”) is actually of the state of Delaware, not New Jersey.
North of the jut that the map does show. In fact, the jut is sort of pointing at it (across the river).
Here’s a map showing it, along with some information.
Comment by dsaoihiggraiojoij — January 26, 2007 @ 5:09 am
And, on a more personal level:
Those two pieces of land are ours, dammit!
Ellis Island and Liberty Island, too!
Free the Occupied Territories of New Jersey!
End the unjust foreign rule of evil Delawareans and New Yorkers!
Comment by dsaoihiggraiojoij — January 26, 2007 @ 5:25 am
For a look at a highly accurate version of the boundary between DE and NJ, have a look at the Map Lab of the Delaware DataMIL (datamil.delaware.gov).
Comment by Mike Mahaffie — January 26, 2007 @ 1:23 pm
As follow-up to Sartorius’ comment (no. 3), he is indeed correct–the Ohio River is not in Ohio. Nor is it in Indiana or Illinois. The reason being is that these states were part of the old Northwest Territory, which was defined as all of the land north and west of, but not including, the Ohio River.
Comment by Jeff — February 2, 2007 @ 6:43 pm
I’m pretty sure New Hampshire owns the whole of the Connecticut along the border with Vermont.
Comment by Max Kahn — February 14, 2007 @ 5:36 pm
please be aware
the so called 12mile circle does not have a radius of exactly 12 miles
except perhaps at a couple of points along its course
to the extent that this oddity is a truly regular geometric figure at all
it is actually comprised of several distinct arcs of different radii ranging from a bit more than 11 miles to a bit less than 13 miles & emanating in fact from 3 different center points more than a mile apart
one of which is indeed the new castle courthouse cupola as claimed
these various arcs all feather imperceptibly together into what is usually mistaken for a single arc of a single circle
but not so
source
civil engineering
a professional journal of the asce
article by lynn perry
entitled the circular boundary of delaware
in november 1934 issue
Comment by aletheia kallos — February 23, 2007 @ 8:09 pm
Growing up in New Jersey, a place admittedly full of more than its share of apocryphal stories, I occasionally heard vague rumors about incidents (something about a murder, or deposited body, or other suspicious death) occurring in one of those areas of Delaware contiguous to New Jersey. The story involved police needing to com all the way up from the the nearest point in Delaware, crossing the Delaware Memorial Bridge well to the north, and returning back down to conduct the investigation.
The Mississippi River also contains many exclaves along its banks, where the river has shifted course over the centuries, uncontent to obey human boundary. Given that sediment accretes on the inside of a bend, Delaware may yet grow on the eastern bank of the river (though erosion on the western bank may balance out any gain).
Comment by Pete — March 6, 2007 @ 7:26 pm
Following up on Pete’s comment (14)here is a recent article detailing this phenomanon, albeit man-made accretion. http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007703160379
Comment by Andy — March 20, 2007 @ 6:45 pm
Another river where a state boundary was defined by a shoreline rather than a centerline is the Connecticut, where NH owns to the shore of VT. Damming, however, has moved the visible shore, but not the boundary, which now appears (on USGS maps, for example) to meander aimlessly out in the river.
If I can figure out how, I’ll send a snippet from the dam at Wilder, VT.
Comment by Doug McIlroy — March 30, 2007 @ 1:40 pm
As a longtime Delaware resident and surveyor, let me correct the false statement that Delaware is the only state of Union with a circular (or nearly so) boundry. The other is Pennsylvania where it contacts Delaware. :-)
Comment by George Phillips — April 5, 2007 @ 12:41 am
‘Course no lines are straight on the round earth… Delaware’s lil’ arc is just smaller, like everything else from Delaware.
Yah it’s pretty cool to visit Ft. Mott in SJ. Scenic views of the river, ruins of the old fort, the Salem nuclear reactor, the old military cemetary, and this strangely out of place sign saying “State of Delaware” and some no-mans-land in the reeds.
Comment by New Jersey, Colossus to the East — June 13, 2007 @ 6:16 am
International borders on (navigable) rivers follow the center of the navigable channel rather than the equidistance to the shoreline. (examples: Rhine, Danube, etc.)
Comment by Felix A. Keller — June 26, 2007 @ 9:28 am
The Red River forms most of the border between Oklahoma and Texas. The state boundary is defined as the northern shoreline, meaning the whole river belongs to Texas. (Oklahoma objects, of course.) On the east, though, the Sabine River is equally divided between Louisiana and Texas. It may be because in 1845, when an independent Texas joined the US, Louisiana had already been a state for 32 years, whereas Oklahoma was not yet a political entity.
On a smaller scale, the border between the City of Houston and the City of West University Place (which, together with Bellaire and Southside Place, form an enclave within Houston) is on the West U edge of the bounding street right-of-way. So for example, houses on the west side of Kirby Drive are in (and taxed by) West U, although the street and its sidewalk are maintained by Houston.
Comment by Dave — June 25, 2008 @ 8:19 pm
Most of the time, it is kinda annoying that Delaware is between MD and NJ. Seems to be a lot of trolls, er tolls… Sometimes it is nice to have a little protection for MD from NJ (just kidding).
MD got control of the Potomac to low-low water on the VA side, in exchange for the federal territory of DC, I think.
Comment by Erik — October 29, 2008 @ 2:55 pm
I’ve heard of people committing crimes on piers on the Delaware stretching from New Jersey, as New Jersey’s police do not have jurisdiction there, and New Jersey state law does not apply.
Comment by Kevin — December 25, 2008 @ 7:46 pm
There is another case of a true arc boundary, and this time at an international scale.It is the one separating the Vatican city border in Piazza de San Pietro (St Peter´s square) with the rest of Rome which is Italy (by the way, the only country on earth containing two other countries inside it: Vatican and San Marino).
The other issue that you are discussing is the fact that the divide between two territories separated by water is normally the middle of the stream. Another international exception lies in Africa, in the Lake Malawi. The shores are shared by three countries, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. The former ones hold sovereignty on the water of the lake, but not Tanzania. Being here, as soon as you decide to wet your feet to see if the temperature is hot you´d rather have your passport ready to show it to a Malawi immigration boat :) I´ve seen it in The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, though it seems to be a disputed boundary.
Another case is the Torres Strait between Australia and Papua New Guinea. The ossies take it all.
Comment by Piscarciano — December 29, 2008 @ 6:01 pm
thanks alot
Comment by Tony — May 4, 2009 @ 2:31 am
thanks for this map
good
luck
Comment by Solomon — May 11, 2009 @ 7:17 am
merci
Comment by aspicco . — May 17, 2009 @ 5:07 am
teşekkür ederim
Comment by yory — June 12, 2009 @ 8:22 pm
Muchas gracias
Comment by sun — July 4, 2009 @ 6:46 am