Interesting summary of some of the oddities of the world's longest border.


Canada and the longest, straightest, possibly boring-est border in the world, but look closer and there's plenty of bizarreness to be found. While these sister nations get along fairly well, they both want to make it really clear whose side of the continent is whose and they've done this by carving a 20 foot wide space along the border. All five and a half thousand miles of it.

With the exception of the rare New England town that predates national borders or the odd airport that needed expanding, this space is the "no-touching zone" between the countries and they're super-serious about keeping it clear. It matters not if the no-touching zone runs through hundreds of miles of uninhabited Alaskan-Yukon wilderness, those border trees will not stand.