Stremf in Numbers
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
States, pt 2
The trans-American road trip is cemented in our culture as a Homeric odyssey. This glorification is not entirely undue. No matter how you slice it there are many incredible itineraries.
The Sun Belt route ties the cultural disparities of Savanna, GA and San Diego, CA. For maximum horizontal distance (as measured by lines of longitude) start in Quoddy Head, Maine (easternmost point) and end in Port Orford, Oregon (westernmost point) – 3,600 miles end to end.
Of course, the classic route is the Cannonball Run: NYC to L.A. This last one represents the spirit of American automotive travel. It starts in our most vertical metropolis, spills out onto the plains and eventually moves into the wild west of our imagined possibilities.
Arguably the first to make a coast-to-coast trip was the party of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Since then the journey has been the rite of passage for generations of young men and the ultimate family vacation. Eisenhower, quite literally, paved the way. The Beats showed us the style while modern long-haul truckers exemplify the tedium of 16 hour days behind the wheel.
Three thousand miles is no joke.
To give you a scale of how far this is, let's superimpose this route on Europe. Imagine you start in Paris and drive east. After about 400 miles you enter Stuttgart Germany. You wind around through Beograd (1,150 miles). At Istanbul (1,700 miles) you get a nice view of the Sea of Marmara out the passenger window. After leaving Eastern Europe you quickly dash through Beirut and Tripoli. Finally, as you rolled into Jerusalem you travelled a distance equal to NY to LA: 2,700 miles.
On that trip you would have passed through France, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Israel. That's how wide this country is.
The Sun Belt route ties the cultural disparities of Savanna, GA and San Diego, CA. For maximum horizontal distance (as measured by lines of longitude) start in Quoddy Head, Maine (easternmost point) and end in Port Orford, Oregon (westernmost point) – 3,600 miles end to end.
Of course, the classic route is the Cannonball Run: NYC to L.A. This last one represents the spirit of American automotive travel. It starts in our most vertical metropolis, spills out onto the plains and eventually moves into the wild west of our imagined possibilities.
Arguably the first to make a coast-to-coast trip was the party of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Since then the journey has been the rite of passage for generations of young men and the ultimate family vacation. Eisenhower, quite literally, paved the way. The Beats showed us the style while modern long-haul truckers exemplify the tedium of 16 hour days behind the wheel.
Three thousand miles is no joke.
To give you a scale of how far this is, let's superimpose this route on Europe. Imagine you start in Paris and drive east. After about 400 miles you enter Stuttgart Germany. You wind around through Beograd (1,150 miles). At Istanbul (1,700 miles) you get a nice view of the Sea of Marmara out the passenger window. After leaving Eastern Europe you quickly dash through Beirut and Tripoli. Finally, as you rolled into Jerusalem you travelled a distance equal to NY to LA: 2,700 miles.
On that trip you would have passed through France, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Israel. That's how wide this country is.
Labels: Manifold destiny
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