Fun Fact about your hometown/state

[Salted Grump]

From Canada.

My city has...

The World's largest Skating rink (Rideau Canal), running nearly 8 kilometres in length of 'cleared' ice, including the entirety of Dow's Lake.

The distinction of being a compromise choice that wasn't even on the ballot when we chose a capital city; before then it was a logging village called Bytown, (after Colonel By, whose brainchild is mentioned above)

Our National War Museum was deliberately designed to look like an overgrown world war 2 bunker, and is built into the Lebreton Flats to the west of the Capital buildings.

The University of Ottawa's technical studies buildings, from 1970-something until 1985-90ish , were powered by a single 'slowpoke' nuclear reactor in the basement, around half the size of a conventional 'boiler'; saved the UO nearly 45K a year by powering four (BIG) buildings.

The Hogsback Waterfall, right next to the Headquarters of the Post Office, is actually an upthrust faultline; we get earthquakes as powerful as 5.5 every ten or so years.

The World's longest Highway passes through the Downtown core of Ottawa, and is known as the 'Queensway' within the city's metropolitan district.

Nortel, Corel, Mitel, Cognos and JDS Uniphase were all founded within Ottawa, though only Corel has maintained its market presence with its graphics programs.

Winterlude is the largest festival in Canada, taking over nearly a third of the city's downtown core, and has as a major focal point, the Rideau skateway, and 'beaver tail' pastries, which, yes, was founded in Ottawa.

The Tulip Festival is, arguably, the largest tulip festival in the world, and every tulip planted for the festival, though only 20,000 actually come from the Netherlands every year, is considered a gift from the Dutch Royal Family in gratitude for Canada's sheltering of the family during World War 2. In fact, Princess Margriet was born in the Ottawa Civic Hospital, with the maternity ward at the time being legally defined as international soil for the occasion, allowing the newly-born princess to gain Dutch citizenship through her mother, instead of gaining canadian citizenship due to being born in a claimed territory.

We have, arguably, the worst statue for arachnophobes to tolerate standing next to the national Gallery; 'Maman', a 30-foot tall bronze cast of a spider carrying an egg sac. It has 'siblings', physically identical in nearly every way, in London, Des Moines, Tokyo, Seoul, St. Petersburg, Bilbao, Kansas City, and Doha.

The Rideau Canal is also a UNESCO World heritage site.

We have six 'sister' Cities; Beijing, Seoul, Buenos Aires, Catania, Palermo, and Campobasso.

IMAX is canadian, and one of its first useable screens were installed in the Museum of Civilization, which is the most-visited museum in Ottawa.

During Remembrance Day, it became impromptu tradition that, everyone participating in the ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier would remove the poppy customarily worn as a symbol and place it on the raised capstone of the tomb, sometimes with pictures or letters to loved ones lost; this tradition has extended to Canada day, where people leave miniature canadian flags atop the tomb as a symbol of respect.

[Linda]

My city is the capital of Wales.
Roald Dahl was born here and his childhood home is part of my old high school -the same school attended by Charlotte Church albeit a couple of years after me.
Doctor Who, Torchwood, Sherlock and (now) Casualty are filmed here.
The pirate Captain Morgan was born in my suburb in a hall which still stands. It's now a pub. It's said that Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf, the last Welsh Prince of Wales is buried at the site of the hall.
We have the world oldest record store
We have more parks and open spaces per head than any other town or city in the UK
The local accent is AWFUL.

[Jester]

It may be more now.

A fellow I've worked with was in the Arizona Highway Patrol 70s/80s working 3 days on / 4 off (12 hour shifts).

There was a Union courier, apparently wounded by Indians, still holed up in there.

Well, since I had to take State History my senior year of high school (1987-1988), and they only ever mentioned one casualty, I am going to guess that he was not considered a Civil War casualty.

Then again, by casualty they meant "killed in battle." This guy apparently was not. Though I am sure there were plenty of non-battle casualties like this in any war, including the CW.

[dawnfire]

I live in Whittlesea, just outside Melbourne.

We have our own country music festival and host the victorian country music awards.

We have a show (kind a like a fair) that is 150+ years old.

We were the hub for alot of the relief efforts after black saturday (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Victorian_bushfires). A lot of the relief centers were outside my street (i didn't live there at the time).

slightly further afield

we have the oldiest water supply for melbourne (yan yean reservoir, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_Yean_Reservoir )

parts of mad max was filmed locally

a roadhouse which is up pretty sally just outside wallan (http://www.madmaxmovies.com/making/m...use/index.html)

where Goose rolls the UTE which is on Bridge Inn Road (ttp://www.madmaxmovies.com/making/madmax/BridgeInnRoad/index.html)

[bhskittykatt]

The only US state in the 48 where you can look south to Canada.

Hate to burst your bubble but....here in WA state we can look south to Canada, too. Victoria is the only provincial capital south of the 49th, I believe. It's actually SW of where I'm at right now, in the US. So...one of two states in the 48 where you can look south to Canada. (In Point Roberts, you can look directly south on the Gulf Islands.)

[dalesys]

I knew that, but didn't mention it. Arizona has one Civil War casualty, total.

It may be more now.

A fellow I've worked with was in the Arizona Highway Patrol 70s/80s working 3 days on / 4 off (12 hour shifts).

On his off days he and his buddy would research old mining claims and then go out exploring and try to find them.

He got far enough into one tunnel to need his headlamp, turned it on... and he warn't alone!

There was a Union courier, apparently wounded by Indians, still holed up in there.

His uniform (wool) in in a museum and Mr. D has the soldier's revolver plus a commendation from the DOD because they were able notify the soldier's next-of-kin after 110 or so years.

[morgana]

My home town is the only town of its name in the world.

Plattsmouth, Nebraska, is named for its location at the point where the Platte River meets the Missouri River. Platte's Mouth.

Only significant fact about my hometown. *shrug*

[Jester]

4. The lowest point in Colorado (on Kansas border) is higher than the highest point in Pennsylvania.

And higher than the highest point in Florida. Easily. I didn't look this up, mind you. I just know how flat and low Florida is. There is just no way that any part of Colorado is lower than any part of Florida.

7. Denver claims to be the birthplace of the Cheesburger. The guy who invented it first tried chocolate as a topping.

So does Buffalo, New York. Seems like we have an East-West battle heating up....

Sorry to disappoint you sir, but that distinction does in fact belong to Texas, we call it the Rio Grande, its a river, maybe you've heard of it?

the AZ/ Mex border is only 389 miles long, whereas the TX/Mex border is 1254 miles long....

I did say that I believed that to be the case. I have also been known to say, repeatedly on this site, that I reserve the right to be horribly and even embarrassingly wrong.

Such as at moments like, say...this.

[reimero]

My hometown:
1. Was the former headquarters for Studebaker.
2. Is the (current) home of the College Football Hall of Fame.
3. Is the hometown of actress Vivica Fox, women's basketball player Skylar Diggins and NASCAR driver Ryan Newman.

[Treasure]

One of the four States that border Mexico, and I believe the one with the longest border with Mexico.

Sorry to disappoint you sir, but that distinction does in fact belong to Texas, we call it the Rio Grande, its a river, maybe you've heard of it?

the AZ/ Mex border is only 389 miles long, whereas the TX/Mex border is 1254 miles long....

[EyeTeaGuy]

I'm a rarity - a Colorado NATIVE.

1. Over 75% of all land in the entire United States with an elevation above 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) is in Colorado.

2. All 54ish peaks in the Rocky Mountains above 14,000 feet are in Colorado - the Fourteeners.

3. Every square inch of Colorado is at least 3,000 feet above sea level. (914m)

4. The lowest point in Colorado (on Kansas border) is higher than the highest point in Pennsylvania.

5. Leadville, CO once was the richest city in the USA, if not the world, due to silver strikes. It is also the highest elevation incorporated city in the world.

6. Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70 is the world's highest vehicle tunnel.

7. Denver claims to be the birthplace of the Cheesburger. The guy who invented it first tried chocolate as a topping.

8. The cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde are some of the oldest permanent structure residences on the American continents. Nobody really knows what happened to the Anasazi, who built them.

9. In south-central Colorado lies the remnants of an ancient super-mega-hyper-duper volcano (La Garita Caldera) which went KABLOOEY about 25 million years ago. Only one eruption since the time of the dinosaurs MAY have been larger. Mt St Helens let loose 1/5000th of the material that La Garita did. Ash likely fell on the eastern seaboard and the Carribean. (And for you non US-types, Colorado a couple thousand miles away from places like NYC/DC.) 100,000 times larger (energy wise) than the Tsar Bomba, largest nuke ever detonated. Most energetic event since the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs.

10. Frozen Dead Guy Days in Nederland, CO celebrate a person who was kept on dry ice in a shed by his family/sons, in hopes of being resurrected. Coffin races, that kind of thing.

11. Boulder, CO is probably the most liberal city in existence outside of San Francisco or Cal-Berkley, and even then it is a tossup.

12. Pueblo, CO has the highest amount of living Medal Of Honor recipients anywhere.

13. Mosquito Pass, in the mountains of Colorado, was named because the settlers couldn't settle on a name, then shut their book - and where they would have written said name, they squashed a mosquito.

14. To build Denver International Airport, they moved 1/3rd the volume of earth moved to build the flippin' PANAMA CANAL.

15. DIA's land area is larger than the island of Manhattan.

16. Had the aliens in Independence Day had brains, Colorado would have been hit first - the "Golf Balls" on Buckley AFB in Aurora are radar dishes that relay information to NORAD for missle defense. Yes, the NORAD that was in Cheyeanne Mountain, and now at an AFB down in Colorado Springs.

17. The makers of Die Hard 2 freaked pretty much the entire city OUT - that plane crash in the movie? Yeah, that was filmed at our airport at the time, which was about 6 blocks north of my house. Seemingly half of the city called 911.

18. Look up "The Sleeper House" - a really weird house on I-70 a bit into the mountains, that looks a bit like a soft taco on its side. Was where Woody Allen filmed a movie. I've been in it - my cousin was the one who purchased it a few years ago and renovated/added on to it. It is JUST as weird and futuristic-y and Jetson-y on the inside. On a clear day, you can see the new airport from it, which is somewhere between 40 and 50 miles away. (64-80 km away)

For some absolutely fascinating reading, try and get a copy of "Colorado" by John Fielder - an awesome photographer, he went around re-creating exactly some shots from a photographer that was around 100 years before his shots, and it is fascinating how the places change and some stay the same.

[CloserToSane]

It's a port city, among other things it's called the "Birthplace of America" as John Cabot sailed from Bristol to North America in 1497.

It's also called "City of Spires". This can explain why it was so heavily bombed during the Blitz.

We have the oldest Methodist church in the city centre.

Blackbeard once had a hideaway cave under St. Mary Redcliffe church. His original birthplace and childhood home are still on the harbourside. Oh and the pub he drank in.

St Mary Redcliffe was described by Queen Elizabeth I as, "the fairest, goodliest, and most famous parish church in England.".

Aardman animations (Wallace and Gromit, among others) are based in Bristol.

We've got, and I quote a local charity single "a really big bridge". The Cilfton Suspension Bridge, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

We used to run on "Bristol time", about five minutes behind everyone else.

The world’s first commercially produced chocolate bar was made in Union Street Bristol by Fry’s in 1847.

The town wasn't meant to be called Bristol, it was Brigstow. However the dialect lends to the "L" at the end, and thus, Bristol.

Plenty of programmes have been filmed in Bristol (lots of BBC): Casualty, Holby City, Mistreses, Skins, Deal or No Deal, Teachers, Only Fools and Horses, House of Elliott, Being Human. We've also had a couple of films shot in the immediate area this year.

[drunkenwildmage]

oh..lets see.

A 'non-fighting' war between 2 states were fought over this city.. The only 'casualty' I believe was a horse.

We are considered 'Home of the Jeep' and it's still manufacturered here.

We are located on swampland that was drained in the 1800s to make way for farming.

Despite the fact that we are located in the US 'Midwest' we do have some sand dunes around here.

An Ex-Mayor is famous for (among things) for suggesting that 'We move all the deaf people to the Airport'

The Flight Director for Apollo 13 was born and raised here.

[Jester]

And FYI, the bars up here are open until 4 AM too.

Oh, I know that there are other places where the bars are open till 4. But down here, with the combination of the great weather and large number of bars, it just adds to the drunken insanity.

Just out of curiousity, where is "here"?

[mikoyan29]

I took the train through Winslow....

Anyways...My State...Where to start:
We are called the Wolverine State although there hasn't been a naturally occuring wolverine for over 200 years (there were a couple a few years ago but they died).

We have the country's only floating Zip Code (48222)

We had the first sunken urban expressway (The Davision)

We had the first traffic light (of some form)

We fought a war with Ohio over Toledo....lost it and got the Upper Peninsula.

The only US state in the 48 where you can look south to Canada.