The Islands of Zavikon are Both in Canada
Today Neatorama linked to a photo purporting to show two islands linked by a foot bridge in the Thousand Islands region of Ontario:
the island on the left is in canada, the one on the right is in the united states. the smaller island contains the ‘backyard’ of the house on the larger island.
That would be cool, if only it were true. There was debate about the veracity of this in the comments, and a couple of commenters cited Wikipedia:
There is a pair of islands near Rockport called Zavikon. A popular tale among local guides is that the bigger part of Zavikon is in Canada, while the smaller part is in the USA, and the foot bridge between them is the “shortest international bridge in the world”. In fact Zavikon is in Canada.
I’m a casual contributor to Wikipedia, so I thought I’d go try to disprove this myth-busting fact. It took a few minutes with Google Maps, but here’s a satellite photo of the islands that maps accurately to to this aerial view.
This supports Wikipedia’s statement, that both islands are a couple of hundred meters inside the Canadian side of the border. So, it’s a myth that Zavikon’s foot bridge is the shortest bridge across an international border. I wonder what is?
And yes, I’m a massive pedant.
September 9th, 2007 at 10:23 am
No idea if it’s the shortest, but I always recall crossing the Allenby/King Hussein Bridge between Jordan and Israel in 1994.
To cross the border, you have to go through customs on the Jordanian side, then board a bus (for which you paid some ridiculous amount given the short length of the trip), cross the bridge, then get processed by Israeli customs. Reading about the trip and how the bridge crosses over the River Jordan, I fully expected a mammoth structure, spanning a vast chasm, below which the river would be raging in all its glory.
On the trip itself, I was puzzled as I couldn’t see any evidence of a bridge structure. I turned and asked a fellow passenger if they knew when we’d get to the bridge. “I think we just went over it” was his reply. The bridge was a short, flat, wooden affair. The river was more akin to a small creek. It was a truly a “blink and you’ll miss it” experience.
The crossing has been rebuilt since I was there (following the Jordanian-Israeli peace deal). This site says it’s 110m long, though that seems longer than what I recall crossing in 94.
September 9th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Of the 3 sources cited for that mention in the wikipedia article, one is currently not accessible, one has questionable reliability, and the other is not accessible online.
I was able to confirm the border does not bisect those islands.
Seeing as this is the encyclopedia that “anyone can edit”, I encourage you to make the edit to remove or correct this statement. At the very least, you can bring it up on the talk page.
The concept of Wikipedia relies on its readers/writers as a whole to correct itself. If the corrections never happen, Wikipedia will fail.
September 9th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
Chalk one up for Canada!
September 9th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
Jay: Why does this statement require removing or correcting? It sounds like somebody just needs to re-check the sources.
Which I just did. One of the sources is an offline book, so it’s quite natural that you wouldn’t be able to access it online. The source is legitimate, so that one doesn’t need attention.
The website for “Geographical Name Search Service” is currently down, but I suspect that’s not a permanent problem.
And which source has questionable reliability?
September 10th, 2007 at 6:36 am
That is cool. I have been fascinated with the 1000 Islands since I first heard about them. Seems like a great place to have a cottage.
September 10th, 2007 at 8:40 am
I think we should move the border a bit so that the myth is true. That would be cool.
October 4th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
As a professional GIS worker I can assure you the errors in administrative borders published in many major online map services specifically including Google include errors larger than 100 meters.
I cant address the veracity in this particular instance, but there are many glaring errors along the US/Canadian border in the Great Lakes - St Laurence region.
Cheers;
Bob
October 21st, 2007 at 11:06 am
My grandfather’s company, Woolrich Woolen Mills of Pennsylvania owned Zavikon Island for about 35 years. I spent summer vacations there with my family every year from the mid 1950’s to the early 1970’s, when they sold the island.
All of us always knew both islands are in Canada, and the “international bridge” story was created by the tour boat companies. So many years before Google, we could clearly see on paper maps where the international boundry is.
Why is it so uncertain and questioned today, I wonder? It is very clear both islands are in Canada.
By the way, the house was built in 1902, by the McLean family, newspaper publishers from Chicago. The bridge was built several years later.
March 10th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Robert F. Rich of Woolrich Woolen Mills was my step-grandfather and my family used to spend the first two weeks of August (usually) on Zavikon Island (mid-1950’s to late 1960’s). I agree with Michael G.’s comment about the “real” boundary. (I assume he’s a descendent of Robert’s brother John.)