World Island Info

Despite near-universal acknowledgement as a stunning achievement in pork-barrel spending, Alaska’s “bridge to nowhere” — which would actually connect Gravina Island to Ketchikan on Revillagigedo Island — seems to still be alive.

It would replace the ferry pictured here, at a cost of some $223 million dollars, at the insistence of powerful Republican Senator Ted Stevens.

The problem is that only about 50 people live on Gravina, and a ferry runs every 15 minutes across the channel in question. Wags have even suggested that you could simply buy every family on the island their own helicopter and still save money.

[Image courtesy of Aaron Headly]

The US Postal Service has issued 40 stamps sure to excite geographical obsessives, the “Wonders of America“:

Yet I guess you can’t please anyone; people have many complaints of omission (and suggestions); mine is obvious — there is not a single real island superlative.

A few come close:

• “Highest sea cliffs” is credited to Moloka’i (Molokai).
• “Deepest lake” shows Wizard Island in Crater Lake, Oregon.
• “Most active volcano” is Kilauea, on Hawaii.
• “Longest span” shows the Verrezano-Narrows Bridge between Long Island and Staten Island, New York.
• “Longest river system” appears to show one or more islands in the Mississippi.
• “Longest reef” is “off the Florida Keys.”

For the record, here are some American island superlatives:

• Largest island — The largest island of the United States is Hawaii, at 4,021 sq mi / 10,414 sq km, and still growing slowly. The largest (and longest) island of the lower 48 states is Long Island.
• Largest lake island — The largest lake island in the United States is Isle Royale, in Lake Superior, Michigan, at 209 sq mi / 541 sq km.
• Largest volcanic island — The largest volcanic island in the United States is Hawaii, at 4,021 sq mi / 10,414 sq km, and still growing slowly.
• Largest river island — The largest American river island is Sauvie Island, a 40sq mi / 104 sq km island in the Columbia River in Oregon.
• Remotest island — According to the United Nations’ Environment Programme, the most isolated American island is Nihoa, part of the Hawaiian chain, which is about 200 miles from another island and 3,600 miles from the nearest continent.
• Youngest volcanic island –The youngest volcanic island is Hawaii, the southernmost of the Hawaiian islands, and thus the most recent to pass over the hotspot that formed the island chain. It is about years old.
• Most populous island – The most populous island in the United States is Long Island, New York, with 7.4 million inhabitants.
• Smallest with one million inhabitants — The smallest American island on which one million or more people live is Manhattan, in New York City, with 1.48 million inhabitants living in 22 sq mi / 57 sq km (at 67,000 per sq mi / 26,000 per sq km).
• Tallest island — The tallest American island is Hawaii, which rises 13,796 feet / 4,205 meters from sea level to the top of Mauna Kea. It is the second tallest of the world’s islands.
• Largest bridged island — The largest island connected to the mainland by a bridge or causeway is Long Island, New York.
• Smallest divided by borders — The smallest island shared with another country is the west island in Boundary Lake, North Dakota, at about 3 acres / 1.1 ha. It is shared with Canada. [American geography, geographic superlatives]

[Image courtesy of United States Postal Service]

I thought it was finally time to circle Manhattan, the island of my birth, so I took a three-hour tour on Memorial Day weekend.

The voyage is thoroughly if not artistically documented on Flickr, with 194 images from the Hudson River, the harbor, the East River, the Harlem River, and back to the Hudson.

Sights include Ground Zero, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and the United Nations.

I was looking at this aerial photo by Automatt on Flickr. He doesn’t say what continent he was flying over, but the river island looked familiar.

“Western Michigan,” I thought. Sure enough, it is Harbor Island in Grand Haven, seen from the northeast.

Image: Automatt (Flickr)

A lost fisherman spent nine days marooned on Turtle Island, in the Sea Islands of southeast South Carolina, before being found.

Two items reiterated that Manhattan is in fact an island and thus somewhat isolated.

In article on beard fashion, of all things, a salon magnate asked of the trend, “It will be interesting to see over the next six to eight months what mainland America is going to do with it.”

Meanwhile, the mainland manages occasionally to reach the island: a coyote was captured in Central Park.  People speculate that he swam a river, or came across a railroad bridge, though presumably not by commuter rail.

“This American Life” offers the story of a boat excursion gone awry in “In the Shadow of the City” (Episode 307, Feb. 3, 2006).  Three Russian immigrants end up marooned on islands in Jamaica Bay, including Ruffle Bar. They do agree at least not to eat each other. (The story also hints at some of the reasons Russian male life expectancy has plummeted in recent decades.)

A newspaper offers this Zen statement about a small Michigan island used for an annual party:

“The island was created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which dumped clean dredged materials onto the site from 1937 through the mid-1960s. The island is actually about 137 acres, but all but 4 acres are submerged.”