The One Minute Geographer: Southwest Virginia’s Cumberland Gap
The odd shapes of many American states create some interesting geographical problems for residents. Let’s say you live near the town of Cumberland Gap, Virginia at the tip of Southwestern Virginia and you want to drive to your state capital, Richmond.
You are looking at a long haul! According to Google Maps, you are looking at a trip of about 425 miles that will take you six hours and 45 minutes.
In fact, as the map at the top of this post shows, that southwestern tip of Virginia is closer to eight other state capitals than it is to Richmond: Charleston, West Virginia; Frankfort, Kentucky; Raleigh, North Carolina; Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Atlanta, Georgia; Columbia, South Carolina and Nashville, Tennessee.
And, although it doesn’t show in ‘as the crow flies’ distances on the map, we can add another state capital, a ninth, that is closer in driving time and distance than Richmond: Montgomery, Alabama, about 20 miles and 20 minutes closer than Richmond from Cumberland Gap.
