The Far East (of America): Cape Spear
Thursday, 17th December 2009 by Ian Brown
Far out in the Atlantic Ocean, the easternmost point of North America is Cape Spear, a few kilometres south-east of St John's in Newfoundland.
A scenic drive through moorland and stunning coastal scenery brings visitors to the Cape Spear parking lot, from where footpaths lead to historic sites and cliffs - the latter being somewhat dangerous due to high winds and waves.
Near to the most easterly point of the continent, bunkers and a pair of rusting 25cm guns are stark reminders of WWII, when this was a key location for the defence of St John's harbour.
A short distance away stand a pair of lighthouses. The southern structure is the original, and dates to the 1830s. Over the years oil and gas were both used to light its warning lamp, but it was eventually converted to electricity almost 100 years after it was built. It was replaced by the new automated lighthouse in 1955, but the original building today serves as a museum, as it's the oldest surviving lighthouse in Newfoundland.
About the author
Ian Brown lives in Ottawa, Canada, and spends his spare time perusing maps to find new routes to ride on his orange bicycle.
I had the pleasure of visiting Cape Spear on New Year’s Day 2000. Sight of the celebration of the first sunrise of the new millenium in the Americas. I didn’t quite make the sunrise event- perhaps due to the length of the huge party the night before in St. John’s where the time zone (1/2 hour before the rest of Atlantic Canada) allowed them to welcome the first New Year’s in the western hemisphere. A common Canadian inside joke is “It is now 3:30 – on the hour in Newfoundland”.
Following-up. If you look slightly north you will see the ‘jaws’ of the inner harbour to St. John’s. The northern tip of the gap is Signal Hill. This was the site where Marconi recvd the first transatlantic radio transmission from Cornwall UK, in the very early 20th century. If you scan down the inner harbour note the large container pier on the south end. That was the site of the Y2K New Year’s party/concert. 😉 Fond memories indeed.
I grew up in St. John’s, Newfoundland (and now live on the other side of Canada – Prince Rupert BC). Great place, and great people.
Some thoughts on “Most Easterly Point in North America”:
is Greenland part of North America?
How about one of those Alaskan Islands — would they be considered more easterly in a weird kind of way (ie: have a larger number of longitude?)
I took my wife to Cape Spear on our first date 🙂 Along with Signal Hill, its a common make-out point for the locals.
Miguel – I chose to ignore those questions when writing the post! Wikipedia describes them as a ‘controversy’ but as a proud Canadian I believe that Cape Spear is the true easternmost point of the continent!
Miguel,
The Aleutian Islands west of the normal longitude of the International Dateline; however, the Dateline has a bit of a bend to the west, so that the Aleutians are kept with North America. North of there, the line has a bend to the east to keep the eastern most piece of Russia with the rest of Asia. To the south, there are other bends in the line to accommodate geopolitical issues.
http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/macslog/InternationalDateline.html is one source of a map of all the bends.