Correction
(Yes, already.)
Ok, turns out, after all that pedalling, I did not in fact make it to the easternmost tip of the USA, nor, perhaps, anywhere close.
Absurd as it may seem, according to the U.S. Geological Survey the formal designation belongs to Pochnoi Point on Semisopochnoi, one of the outer Aleutian Islands of Alaska, which at 179°46' east longitude is indeed considered to lie 246 degrees east of West Quoddy Head (66°57'W), not 114 degrees west. By the same criterion, the western extremity of the USA is located not on Peaked Island, the outermost of the Aleutians, but rather on Amatignak, a mere 60 miles to the southeast of Semisopochnoi just opposite the 180th meridian.
(Those limey bastards in Greenwich are of course spared any such headscratching.)
Even by the more intuitive standard of position relative to the geographic center of the nation (44°59'N, 103°38'W; near Castle Rock, SD), Sail Rock, a tiny pinnacle just a few hundred yards off Quoddy, is the true eastermost landform, as it does rise slightly above the high tide mark. Naturally this presents a far more bitter pill—to have come practically within pissing distance only to turn back without tagging the damn thing. I mean, granted I'm not much of a swimmer, again we're only talking a few hundred yards. Surely a quick lap through the "swift", "icy" current in the Bay of Fundy wouldn't have killed me.
(God I feel robbed.)
Ok, turns out, after all that pedalling, I did not in fact make it to the easternmost tip of the USA, nor, perhaps, anywhere close.
Absurd as it may seem, according to the U.S. Geological Survey the formal designation belongs to Pochnoi Point on Semisopochnoi, one of the outer Aleutian Islands of Alaska, which at 179°46' east longitude is indeed considered to lie 246 degrees east of West Quoddy Head (66°57'W), not 114 degrees west. By the same criterion, the western extremity of the USA is located not on Peaked Island, the outermost of the Aleutians, but rather on Amatignak, a mere 60 miles to the southeast of Semisopochnoi just opposite the 180th meridian.
(Those limey bastards in Greenwich are of course spared any such headscratching.)
Even by the more intuitive standard of position relative to the geographic center of the nation (44°59'N, 103°38'W; near Castle Rock, SD), Sail Rock, a tiny pinnacle just a few hundred yards off Quoddy, is the true eastermost landform, as it does rise slightly above the high tide mark. Naturally this presents a far more bitter pill—to have come practically within pissing distance only to turn back without tagging the damn thing. I mean, granted I'm not much of a swimmer, again we're only talking a few hundred yards. Surely a quick lap through the "swift", "icy" current in the Bay of Fundy wouldn't have killed me.
(God I feel robbed.)
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