Talk:Interesting borders

"Other anomalies" list
I removed the new long list of anomalies, partly doubling the Destinations section. I rewrote some of it as a new section (Border anomalies), but it could be expanded and improved, and the listed places should probably be added to the Destinations section, or their descriptions merged. Much more also of the general language of the list could probably be salvaged, I just didn't put enough effort in that.

Here's the list:


 * "Line houses" where a building is split in two by an international boundary. Most were built many years ago, when border restrictions were less strict.
 * Rail lines which start and end in the same jurisdiction, but briefly cross into foreign territory at some intermediate point. Berlin's "U-bahn" subway during the Cold War was infamous for this; after the fall of Communism, the Trans-Siberian Railway mainline was primarily Russian but briefly detoured into what is now Kazakhstan.
 * Infrastructure that's been deliberately built directly on (and divided by) a boundary, so that it may be used by both sides.
 * There are a few parks (including British Columbia's "Peace Arch Park", partially in Washington State) which deliberately straddle the line.
 * There are a few tiny general aviation airstrips on the 49th parallel which use the customs house for a nearby existing road.
 * There have been factories built on or facing onto a boundary.
 * There are at least two golf courses (one in Portal, North Dakota and another in the Aroostook Valley near Fairfield, Maine) which cross an international boundary, with interesting issues created by time zones. A "19th hole" clubhouse in another country was an interesting way to bypass Prohibition in the day.
 * Historically, at least one general store has attempted to operate on a "serve both sides" basis on the northern US border. This tends to work poorly.
 * And then there was an entire free library and opera house built by a bi-national couple directly on the Québec-Vermont border. That became very inconvenient very quickly during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Canada locked down its borders to non-essential travel.
 * Structures built before a border was surveyed, or before a boundary existed. These sometimes find themselves on the "wrong" side of the line, or even divided by the boundary once its in place. British forces had to abandon fortifications in part of the Thousand Islands when the newly-drawn boundary put Carleton Island in New York State, for instance. There is also a ruin of a "Fort Blunder" as a US fortification on the west side of Lake Champlain, north of the 45th parallel.
 * Territory subject to border disputes, where some feature is claimed by both sides or – in the odd case of Bir Tawil – neither side. Occasionally a dispute will give a territory some unusual status; Machias Seal Island in New Brunswick was able to keep its manned lighthouse "to protect sovereignty" against neighbouring Maine even while other beacons across the Dominion were being automated and operated unattended; the dispute also allows both sides to fish more lobster than could otherwise be taken in a strictly-regulated fishery and allows both sides to land tour boats (max 15 passengers, leaving the way they arrived) on the island.
 * Communities where the only road or bridge leads directly abroad. Campobello Island is one example; there's a bridge, but it leads not to New Brunswick but to Lubec, Maine.
 * Infrastructure in locations which are nominally geographically contiguous to their parent country, but where an obstacle or a lack of infrastructure force a detour into foreign territory as the only overland access. For instance, BC's "Premier Mine" site is geographically contiguous to the rest of British Columbia, but a mountain in the way forces the only access across a border into Hyder, Alaska.
 * Borders which were based on bodies of water, which later have moved or been displaced as to leave a fragment of territory stranded. For instance, a boundary follows a river, the river changes its course after the line has been drawn, and now a tiny bit of land is on the "wrong" side of the water (an obstacle) relative to its parent country.
 * Native reserve boundaries which don't align with international colonial boundaries. For instance, the Ontario-New York State-Québec tripoint falls inside Akwesasene Mohawk territory - a nightmare for border guards.
 * There are also cases where a border on some arbitrary line of latitude or longitude lops off a peninsula or similar geographic feature, creating something which looks much like an exclave but is not.
 * Borders also occasionally chop small islands in half. Canada's only land border with Denmark is this, on the very out-of-the-way Hans Island.
 * There are also instances where a house or building in one country is situated on some other country's highway system. Québec Route 247 (CanUSA Street) is an infamous example.

–LPfi (talk) 07:40, 8 May 2024 (UTC)


 * Those which have a defined location, and can be visited, should be individual entries. /Yvwv (talk) 11:58, 8 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Yes. That's one reason why the list was odd, and the reason why I didn't link the examples I left or added. –LPfi (talk) 17:37, 8 May 2024 (UTC)