Virginia’s western tip is about a degree of longitude further west than any part of West Virginia, roughly 90 km or 56 miles.
Where the two states end
Virginia’s westernmost point is at Cumberland Gap, where it meets Kentucky and Tennessee, at 83°41′W. West Virginia’s is on the Tug Fork river near Fort Gay, at 82°39′W. Virginia’s long tail runs south-west underneath West Virginia and keeps going after West Virginia has stopped.
Why there’s a West Virginia
When Virginia left the Union in 1861, its western counties refused to go with it. They set up their own government and were admitted as a new state on 20 June 1863. The name first chosen was Kanawha, after the river, but the convention that wrote its constitution went with West Virginia, because it was the western part of Virginia. In 1925 someone did propose renaming it Kanawha after all. It’s still called West Virginia.
Other ones that sound wrong
Reno, Nevada, is further west than Los Angeles. California’s coast bends east as it heads south, so Los Angeles ends up east of a lot of Nevada. Going by the Census Bureau’s coordinates, Reno is at 119.85°W and Los Angeles at 118.41°W.
Atlanta is further west than Detroit, too, at 84.42°W against 83.10°W, even though most people picture Detroit out in the Midwest and Atlanta on the East Coast.
For more of the same, see Wyoming against the other 49 states or ski resorts in each state.
Sources: Wikipedia’s extreme points of US states, Wikipedia on West Virginia, West Virginia Archives on the state’s name, the Harvard Crimson on the 1925 proposal and the Census Bureau gazetteer.
| Place | Longitude |
|---|---|
| Westernmost point of Virginia (Cumberland Gap) | 83°41′W |
| Westernmost point of West Virginia (Tug Fork, near Fort Gay) | 82°39′W |
| Reno, Nevada | 119.85°W |
| Los Angeles, California | 118.41°W |
| Atlanta, Georgia | 84.42°W |
| Detroit, Michigan | 83.10°W |
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