When is a city/town not a city/town?
When it doesn't exist according to the authorities. 2 classic examples exist in Virginia and Maryland in the good ol' USofA.
The town of Woodbridge is recognized by the US Postal Service as a valid town. There is a humungous mall here called Potomac Mills which is a tourist attraction in and of itself in the greater Washington DC area.
However, the state of Virginia does not recognize Woodbridge as existing. If you go to the state's web site, and search towns and cities, you won't see any mention of Woodbridge. Hmmm.
The's strange, because the local cross county public bus has WOODBRIDGE in big bold letters on its signboards.
Officially, Woodbridge is actually Prince William County. There are 2 other places, iinterestingly enough, that are adjacent to or part of Woodbridge, which also don't exist, according to the state. They are Lake Ridge, and Dale City. Dale City is not a City, mind you. So there.
Not to be outdone by its redneck brethren, the state of Maryland has a similar situation. The town of Wheaton, which also has a mall, although much humbler than Potomac Mills, it's only called the Westfield Wheaton Shopping Centre.
Nope, the state of Maryland says the Wheaton Mall, I mean the Westfield Wheaton Shopping Centre, and the Metro subway station across the street from it, are in Silver Spring. There's no such town as Wheaton, even if the US Postal Service considers wheaton (and Woodbridge) to be valid places, even giviing them a proper zip code.
So, for all you snail mail bashers, the Postal Service must be great, they can find things that the state says don't exist. A case of one hand of government knowing something the other hand doesn't.
By the way, if you think the above is confusing, consider the case of the Statue of liberty. (If you ask me, the French should have insisted it be placed closer to one state than the other.)
The Statue of Liberty has an address in New Jersey, but the state of New York claims it as their own. The New Yorkers say that there was this special exemption granted to it a long time ago, although the map clearly shows that the statue is in New Jersey waters.
Good thing NY and NJ are on good terms, otherwise, we could have a shooting match (think the Falklands, Kashmir, the North Pole, you get the picture).
I kid you not. The Travel Channel or Discovery Channel had a feature on the Statue of liberty.
Isn't geography fun?
